I consider The Forge to be an extremely sad chapter, mainly because my favorite person, Ahab, sounds particularly sad in this chapter. The passage states, “This done, and Ahab moodily stalked away with the weapon; the sound of his ivory leg, and the sound of the hickory pole, both hollowing ringing along every plank. But ere he entered his cabin, a light, unnatural, half-bantering, yet most piteous sound 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!” (Melville 533). I really like this passage because Melville is using sound to describe the current state of the whole ship. He uses the word ‘hollow’ particularly because the ship feels empty and dark, especially with Ahab’s presence; this adds more meaning to the term, of how Ahab’s mood has been affecting the ship this entire time. The Pequod represents a mass of emptiness, a void where silence brought loneliness into Ahab. The reason why I believe Ahab feels lonely is that he has been distancing himself for quite some time. There is a difference between him and the crew, a social hierarchy where Ahab is on top of it, and the crew is at the very bottom. This explains the distance between them because they could never fit in a different environment when they are already in their own comfort zone. But then Pip’s ‘piteous’ laugh came in, his laugh acts as a reminder to Ahab that he is not alone, and there will always be people around him, whether he accepts them or not. You guys are probably wondering: Why is Pip’s laugh important? This is because Ahab considers this ship to be melancholy, empty, and dark. It reminded Ahab of the memories when he first became a whaleman, and Pip’s pitiful laugh possibly balances out the creepy vibes that the ship is having. His laugh mocked everything that this ship stands for, and Ahab loves it.