Tag Archives: ahab

Essay 2 – The Doubloon and the Limit of Ahab

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In chapter 99, we watch as the doubloon transforms before our very eyes; from a piece of gold worth sixteen dollars as means of motivating the crew to more of a legend, similar to the painting in chapter 3. This painting is one that is muddled and soot-covered from years of smoking and lack of care, but the painting allows the audience to play with meaning and figure out how to read the novel. It is the same with the doubloon, however, less so with the novel itself and more with the characters’ morality and current mental state.Ahab in particular is fascinating, allowing the audience to peer into his beliefs, lining up with the descriptions Ishmael had heard about before ever having met the wayward captain. Ahab walks the deck, the same path daily, and yet it is here, it is now, in which he has a religious experience—one in which he is at its centre. “There’s something ever egotistical in mountain-tops… and all other grand and lofty things…”, Ahab states, “The firm tower, that is Ahab… the courageous, the undaunted, and victorious fowl, that, too, is Ahab…” (Melville ???). In these declarations, the audience sees a man who would fight the sun, the man who is god-like, the man who is Ahab. At what point does perception become reality? In not only the minds of the crew, but also in the captain’s mind, Ahab is omnipotent—how far reaching is this power when the whale takes from the Ahab?

Ahab’s power, an illusion

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In chapter 133, our crew finally comes face to face with Moby Dick, their deadly foe. In the skirmish that ensues with him, Ahab and other mariners fall into the sea after Moby Dick bites their boat in half, and then he starts circling them. In page 599, Melville writes, “Meanwhile Ahab half smothered in the foam of the whale’s insolent tail, and too much of a cripple to swim,–though he could still keep afloat, even in the heart of such a whirlpool as that; helpless Ahab’s head was seen, like a tossed bubble which the least chance shock might burst.” Our captain, this indomitable force of revenge and hate, seems fragile. In this passage, Melville brings to our attention two important points: Ahab is old and he is missing a leg. While these things have been discussed in the story before, they were really never liabilities, but now they have completely humanized Ahab for us and even made him seem weak. The picture Melville paints for us of old Ahab struggling to stay afloat in the water undercuts the image of the powerful and maniacal sea captain we have been getting up until now. Ahab’s element is sailing the sea, but being in the water itself has made him vulnerable like never before. He is tragically unequipped for this environment although he has spent his life in it. Not only do we realize that Ahab’s greatness has limits because of his physical condition, but because he is a mere human. The phrase, “helpless Ahab’s head was seen, like a tossed bubble which the least chance shock might burst” prompts us to think about the littleness and inadequacy of man in the face of nature. Even great Ahab is helpless in the sea and his head in the water is compared to a bubble. What is a bubble in the vastness of the ocean? This moment is prompting us to juxtapose the previous idea we had of Ahab, of supernatural power, with his current helplessness brought about by nature. The indomitable spirit of man (or his obsessive hatred) is nothing in the face of the natural world. Our power is an illusion that bursts like a bubble as soon as we touch the water. Melville destroys our previous perception of Ahab and uses imagery to illustrate a larger truth about humanity, that when faced with the savageness of nature, our greatness and power are revealed to be constructs of our own creation, and that though it might be easy for us to forget, nobody can tame the sea.

Essay 2: Short essay

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In chapter 113,” The Forge”, Melville transforms Ahab’s pursuit towards Moby Dick into a haunting, obsessive and desire of defying the divine. In this chapter, Ahab’s newly forged harpoon is his last solution to everything that’s become of his obsession, he makes it a symbol of both his vengeance and doom. In the quote, “ This done, pole, iron, and rope-like the Three Fates-…” Melville depicts the harpoon with the myth of “The Three Fates” who represent life and death, but also Ahab’s demise. Through the mythic imagery, sound, tone, and madness, Melville reveals Ahab’s madness and defiance against the divine and transforms him into the victim, but also the pursuer of his own consequences of his actions towards desire of wanting to control something that is beyond the realism of human nature. Melville wants us, the audience, to know the obsession and the definition of rage.

The connection towards the “pole, iron, and rope” to “the Three Fates” connects Ahab’s weapon to Greek Mythology, the story of the three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who are known as the deciders of the past, present, and future, they cut the thread of life, the human life they decide on how long you get to live. The pole is the beginning that holds everything together, this is the moment where Ahab’s journey begins. The iron represents giving the weapon its shape, length, and the purpose of the weapon’s destination. And the rope presents us the connection between the whale and the ship, which it also demonstrates on how rope kills whalers like snapping, entangles and drags men under the sea. It represents the thread of life and how it easily can snap you in an instant. This whole thing is a cycle for Ahab, his destiny has been already fulfilled and he sealed his doom and the crew’s.

“Ivory log, and the sound of the hickory pole, both hollowly ringing along every plank,”(533),  the sounds of the leg echoing through the ship creates an eerie, echoing soundscape. His presence is eerie and hollow like a ghost roaming the ship he’s pavemented to. Its sounds symbolize emptiness and death. Ahab’s movements are dominant and doom which gives us a reminder on who he is and his whole concept of revenge in the story. He makes the ship feel melancholic, empty and dark. Melville is already giving us hints, “ piteous” “wretched” and “melancholy” using a tone of tone which it obviously gives us a foreshadowing of the ship’s doom. It slowly becomes the sound of destruction of the ship and of Ahab too. Melville demonstrates in this quote,” Oh Pip! Thy wretched laugh ….”, it shows how the laugh of Pip is a mockery towards everything around mimicking Ahab like a mirror reflecting on his doom and slowly uncontrollable madness. 

Ultimately, Melville’s portrayal of Ahab in Chapter 113, reveals about a man who’s beyond the limits of reality and seeking the imagery of a realm beyond the human limits, by sealing his destiny long before the final battle between him and Moby Dick. Through these images, Melville demonstrates Ahab’s attempt of command by taking the role of a God, who’s untouchable and in control of everything around him. Melville demonstrates to us the consequences of men who pursue the urge of power, control and rage.

Essay 2

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In chapter 100 of Moby Dick, there is an introduction of another captain who also lost a limb from the whale Moby Dick. In his case however, the limb that he lost was his arm not his leg like Ahab did. During the discussion of the infamous sperm whale, it becomes evident to the other captain and outsiders that Ahab’s anger towards the whale is very irrational and crazed. Melville uses the contradiction of the two captains who share a similar experience but yet have a different reaction towards the whale as a learning lesson. In which two people can go through the same experiences yet the mindset in which they have will be determined from how they feel they were affected but that experience. 

To begin, Melville introduces another captain, Captain Boomer, as a man who also lost a limb from the Moby Dick as well. However for this character, the lost limb is from the upper half of the body. Losing an arm is different from losing a leg, both tragic of course, but imagine being pushed down without a leg? It would be quite difficult to get up without help. Now imagine being pushed down without an arm. It would seem to be a lot easier to get back up because the strength from your other limbs will help in returning back to stability. That is exactly what Ahab lost, stability, not only physically but mentally. During the discussion of the capturing of the sperm whale he asks the captain boomer if he was able to catch him the second time he saw him, to which he responds, “Didn’t want to try to; ain’t one limb enough? What should I do without this other arm?”(481)  Captain Boomer cannot fathom why he would want to try again because he could risk losing another arm and to be without one arm is already bad enough. He emphasizes this to Ahab as is it something that he can relate to and is wondering why he should jeopardize himself like that again for he knows that in comparison to the bite of a whale, he simply cannot compete. 

Captain Boomer continues with, “And I’m thinking Moby Dick doesn’t bite so much as he swallows.” (481) Boomer believes that the bite form the whale is not within the same context of satisfactory as it might be for other animals and as it is for humans when eating their favorite food. If the whale had wanted to hurt a human with intention it would have gone in for a second bite, it could have easily devoured the human considering the difference in size. With the back up of his crewmate Bunger saying “…it is quite impossible for him to completely digest even a man’s arm? And he knows it too. So that what you take for the White Whale’s malice is only his awkwardness.”(481) Bunger further attests to the belief that the whale’s bites are not ill intended, for his “awkwardness” is just being a whale. It is part of being a whale and should have been taken into consideration when whaling. Apart from adapting to the ocean, whalers are to consider the living beings in their home. The ocean is the home of the whale and the men on the boat are invading their boundary by not only being there but in their attempt to capture them for human benefit. 

The difference between these men and Ahab’s beliefs is evident through their conversation and during the end of the conversation Ahab still insists that “But he will still be hunted, for all that. What is best alone, that accursed thing is not always what least allures.”(482) Ahab feels a huge amount of anger towards “thing” and is compelling him like a magnet to find him and punish the whale. For Ahab to say “still be hunted, for all that.” even after the other captain shared his experience with the whale it shows that the conversation did not have any affect on him. He did not get any clarity to stand back on his revenge, if anything it only amplified it for him. Ahab decided to add the loss of limb from another captain to the mental list of reasons why is seeking this whale. His anger is so strong that Bunger even points out, “this man’s blood—bring the thermometer!—it’s at the boiling point!—his pulse makes these planks beat!—sir!”(482) These men are terrified to even see the anger vibrating off Ahab just from talking about the creature. The captains do not see eye to eye in regard to this situation and while one of them shares compassion for the whale and is at peace with not pursuing the capture of Moby Dick, Ahab is not on the same page. Melville captures the feelings on paper in a way to make the readers understand just how much of a difference the circumstance can be for each individual regardless of a shared experience.

 There is an irony of this chapter where humans express pushing the boundaries of the beings that live in water and when they face the consequences such as the bite, a naturality of being a whale, some feel angered while others don’t. Even though the two characters went through similar experiences does not mean that they will react the same to the situation. Especially considering the circumstances for Ahab who lost a leg and cannot stand on his own without the help of someone else or with his ivory leg whereas Boomer can stand on his own even with the loss of his arm. The instability is evident not only in Ahab’s physical but also his mentality. Disability is a very difficult matter to deal with and it can evidently take a toll on one’s mental health, driving them to madness and anger. 

Bird of Heaven

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Ahab received his ultimate punishment in the finale of Moby Dick. It wasn’t death, he knew death was imminent: “lower not when I do; when branded Ahab gives chase to Moby Dick. That hazard shall not be thine!” (590) When Ahab tells Starbuck not to lower with him it is because he wants Starbuck to return home to his family unlike him. He knew he wouldn’t. Ahab’s ultimate punishment was watching his ship go down without him. “death glorious ship! Must ye then perish, and without me? Am I cut off from the last fond pride of meanest shipwrecked captains? Oh, lonely death on lonely life!” (622) It is glory for every captain to go down with their ship. It is honor. In his monomaniacal craze Ahab lost his youth, his family, his sanity but he never thought he would lose the privilege of going down with his ship. He never thought he would lose honor. He loses the chance of entering death in his American wood hearse. This enrages him, somehow heightening his hate for the whale. Which in turn, causes his predicted death by hemp.

What is interesting is though Ahab loses his chance to go down with the Pequod, a heavenly hawk, hammered to the mast-head by Tashtego, goes down with the Pequod. The hawk finalizes Ahab’s battle with nature and his destruction of spirituality. Birds have long been symbols of transcendence in this novel: “Bethink thee of the albatross: whence come those clouds of spiritual wonderment and pale dread, in which that white phantom sails in all imaginations?” (206) Nailing a hawk, a “bird of heaven, with archangelic shrieks” (624), to the mainmast as it sinks, symbolizes a loss of God. This nation, the Pequod, and maybe one day America, goes down due to uncontrolled, monomaniacal leadership. When this happens, they take God and spirituality down to the depths with them.

Of love and learning

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The very things that Ahab denied allowed Ishmael to survive the sinking of the Pequod – love and learning. For what could have kept the Rachel near but the unending search for the lost boy, for the love of a parent with a missing child? And what but love drove Queequeg to stave off his impending death so that his coffin can be the thing that saves Ishmael? Back in Chapter 10, Ishmael declared that “we were bosom friends; he would gladly die for me, if need should be.” (57) When Queequeg’s death was imminent, when his final moments neared, he changed his mind about dying, stating that “he had just recalled a little duty ashore, which he was leaving undone.” (523)

Without a doubt, that “little duty” was his pact with Ishmael, as he proceeded to use this coffin as a sea chest for all his earthly belongings – as was promised with their declaration – and he set about the journey aware of its inevitable end. Queequeg took the time “carving the lid with all manner of grotesque figures and drawings; and it seemed that hereby he was striving, in his rude way, to copy parts of the twisted tattooing on his body.” (524) This coffin, in turn, took the place of Queequeg. He carved it to use as a stand-in, when he knew he would likely not be able to keep his word.

I include learning in my analysis because Ahab never took the time to learn about anyone – he assumed that all he knew was all he needed to know, allowing his monomaniacal focus to hold sway over all aspects of his life. This meant that he did not try to learn about Queequeg beyond the fact that he was a cannibal. He did not try to learn from the misfortune of others that his own demise could be more than “the gallows.” Ultimately, learning from Starbuck or even listening to Stubb regarding Captain Gardiner’s request could have changed the shape of his life. Yet, because he did not, he was doomed to a predetermined fate of his own making.

Pierce the Whale

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Considering the Loose-Fish doctrine and the whiteness of the whale acting as a blank canvas for Ahab to project upon “all that most maddens and torments… all evil” (200), you can see how vain and piteous Ahab’s final curses upon Moby Dick are: “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee” (623). Having finally arrived at the expected point, watching his ship perish without him, knowing his death is imminent, he, for the last time, resigns himself to the obsession that set him on this voyage because it is all he knows. Even though we, along with Starbuck and other characters, don’t view the whale as malicious but rather as a dumb brute, Ahab is firm in his declaration that Moby Dick is “all-destroying but unconquering.” This refusal to be “conquered” in his final moments is Ahab’s last attempt at claiming Moby Dick as his Loose-Fish. If Ahab convinces himself that he is righteous in this endless hunt, which he has done throughout the entirety of the novel, he is justified in his own mind to continue walking down the doomed path, no matter the deaths he is responsible for. By piercing Moby Dick with his final curses from hell’s heart for hate’s sake, Ahab willingly condemns himself as a martyr; but Ahab is no martyr in the way he desired. Rather, he is a warning to America of this unrelenting chase towards one thing built upon a vain justification. Ironically, Ahab has become the Fast-Fish, fastened to the whale, tied to “all evil” (his own words), even after death.

Chapter One-Hundred Thirty Five

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In Chapter 135, “The Chase—The Third Day”, Ahab’s final cry, “Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale … from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee”, serves as the ultimate expression of his monomaniacal defiance. It reveals how his Obsession transforms him into a tragic figure who seeks meaning in a universe that offers none. Spoken in the climactic moment of the final chase, the passage occurs at the precise point where Ahab’s quest can no longer be sustained by rhetoric, willpower, or self-mythologizing, he is quite literally being pulled toward death, yet he insists on framing his struggle as an extraordinary battle. The language of the passage shows how completely Ahab’s identity has collapsed into hatred, spitting verbs such as grapple, stab, and spit form a relentless chain of physical aggression that contrasts with his powerlessness. By calling the whale “all destroying but conquering,” Ahab asserts a moral victory even as he is defeated, clinging to the belief that his refusal to yield to the whale makes him superior to the indifferent force that has destroyed him. This is crucial because the whale itself is not malicious, it’s the people surrounding the whale that are malicious, making the whale a representation to the impersonal vastness of nature or fate. Ahab’s language with “from hell’s heart” echoes defiance, reinforcing the idea that he casts himself as a cosmic rebel battling an order he perceives as unjust. The final command with “Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool!, dramatizes his rejection of human mortality and meaning. He calls for the destruction of all symbols of orderly death, signaling his desire to obliterate the structures that deny him control. This moment is important not only as the climax of this event but it also culminates many themes that are important to the novel like the self-destruction inherent in obsession and the tragic futility of attempting to impose human meaning onto nature. This passage represents Ahab’s transformation into the embodiment of his own rage; an extraordinary but doomed figure who mistakes defiance for victory as he plunges to his death.  

Chapter 113- The Forge

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In chapter 113, we are able to see how Ahab’s obsession has taken over him. It consumes him so much that he turns away from God and does not wish for his blessing but instead wishes for the blessing of the devil. This becomes more clear with the forging of the specialized harpoon and the covering of the weapon in blood from the three pagan harpooners. Melville writes “‘Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, see in nomine diaboli!’ deliriously howled Ahab, as the malignant iron scorchingly devoured the baptismal blood” (Melville 532). This part really caught my attention especially since it is in Latin. What Ahab is saying here is he baptizes the weapon not in the name of the father but in the name of the devil. We can also see Ahab performing this “satanic” ritual by using the blood from the three pagans. With the baptizing of Ahab’s weapon we can see how his obsession with the whale has corrupted him. His fixation is so intense it calls forth an alliance with evil. The upgraded harpoon is more than a weapon, it is a symbol of Ahab’s madness—his devotion to vengeance. Ahab wishes for chaos and has Perth forge a weapon of death to use for the Great Whale. Instead of using faith to keep the vengeance away, it is being twisted to keep the vengeance near. Another thing I want to add is the whale has been referred to as a mystical and god-like thing a number of times. So, to see Ahab bring up the devil’s name to bless the harpoon shows just how deep his obsession runs. He has to turn to darkness itself to help destroy this divine being. Melville uses this moment to reveal the destruction obsession causes. 


Chapter 113: The Forge: I’m Crazy, Your Crazy, We’re Crazy!

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The more and more and more I read this book and Melville’s obsession with sanity and insanity for his characters is quite strategic since he wants us to understand, but explore the truth, obsession and limits if human understanding. In chapter 113, ” The Forge”, Melville transforms a simple craftmanship to more of a symbolic ritual of obsession and sacrilege. Ahab commands the blacksmith to forge him a new harpoon, that he swears will actually kill Moby Dick. When the forge of the harpoon is done, he asked for his three harpooners-Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo to offer some of their blood as a symbol of baptism.

“Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!” (532), meaning ” I do not baptize you you in the name of the Father, but in the name of the Devil,” Ahab reverses the role of a sacred baptism, not to God, but to his own rage and obsession. This demonstrates Ahab’s rebellion towards Christianity and his hellish transformation of pure revenge. In this scene, he kind of acts like an anti-priest who performs a dark sacrament and using blood from his “disciples” as a sacrifice for the “sake” of revenge. It gave me the chills, just imagining what’s going through Ahab’s mind and how slowly and cruel he’s becoming, demonstrating his way of thinking and how he craves revenge like a man thirsting for water. Melville deepens the atmosphere in the lines of this quote, “This done, pole, iron, and rope-like the Three Fates- remained inseparable, and Ahab moodily stalked away with the weapon; the sound of the hickory pole, both hollowly ringing along every plank. But ere he entered his cabin, a light, unnatural. half-bantering, yet most piteous sound was was heard. Oh Pip! thy wretched laugh, thy idle but unresting eye; all thy strange mummeries not unmeaningly blended with the black tragedy of the melancholy ship, and mocked it!” (533) in the quote, Melville invokes the usage of the Greek mythology the myth of the Three Fates who are goddesses who control the destiny of every living being from their birth to death, it demonstrates on how Ahab’s destiny is now sealed with a weapon and as his creator, he’s now set for what’s coming to him by fate and death. This moment reflects Melville’s warning towards the use of the destructive power of man’s obsession and man’s defiance against religion.

The only thing I like about this book so far is about how Melville uses metaphors, imagery, and philosophical moments, but also the bashing of religion that intrigues me. Even the mythology references.