Tag Archives: god

Blame God

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Reading Starbuck’s last plea to Ahab in “The Symphony” was very disheartening because we know that Ahab couldn’t be swayed from his crusade. Starbuck, the voice of reason, or our symbol for “we the people”, is practically begging to change course back to Nantucket, but his words fall on deaf ears as “Ahab’s glance was averted; like a blighted fruit tree he shook, and cast his last, cindered apple to the soil” (592). Ahab can’t even bother to look at his first mate during his request, “blighted” by whatever this force is that keeps him on his mission, the “last, cindered apple” of any hopes of salvation now gone from him. We had the first confrontation in the Cabin just last week, but this is the final moment when the captain turns his back on his people, hardly listening to them as he leads the Pequod to their doom. I know it was present throughout the novel, but this scene of Ahab’s final soliloquy before The Chase felt the most like Shakespearean tragedy as we, with Starbuck, just want him to stop, but we know it won’t happen, and can only watch as he broods over his so-called fate, questioning whether he even has any agency or he’s just a puppet of God:

“Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm? But if the great sun move not of himself; but is an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat; this one small brain think thoughts; unless God does that beating, does that thinking, does that living, and not I” (592).

In giving up his agency, claiming that it may just be that God is moving him on this path, Ahab is reassuring himself that this is just the way it has to be. If the great sun that allows us to live doesn’t have control over it’s actions, then why should Ahab’s small heart and brain have any power? So Ahab assigns himself to what he believes to be his fate, despite the consequences it will have for the people he is responsible for. Placing the responsibility on a higher being is a way for him to excuse his actions that he knows will not bear the fruit he wants (where have we seen that before?) Despite the countless warnings and pleas from other ships (and Starbuck) and ill omens and prophecies, Ahab, or rather God, in his eyes, cannot be moved. By assuming divinity, Ahab prevents any alteration towards a better outcome for the nation state of the Pequod, leaving the people “blanched to a corpse’s hue with despair” (593).

What a trip (literally) – Chapter 93

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This chapter is where I’m starting to get a bit more juice into focusing on the novel again. But also, poor Pip man. He’s really struggling to pull his weight in this chapter, but it also becomes clear that the racial dynamics on the ship are painfully obvious. As a young Black man who has trouble pulling his weight around, it is very easy to be accosted, as is described in the chapter after the first time he jumps off of the boat. We eventually get a scenario in which he jumps off again, and Stubb strands him (not purposefully) thinking the other whale boats would get Pip. That doesn’t end up being the case, and we get this bit of introspection as Ishmael describes Pip’s experience on the open sea.

“The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of unwarped primal world glided to and fro and before his passive eyes; and the miser-merman, Wisdom, revealed his hoarded heaps…Pip saw the multitudinous, God-omnipresent, coral insects, that out of the firmament of waters heaved the colossal orbs.” (453)

This line specifically speaks about how jarring the ocean itself is. It’s this powerhouse of feeling that stirs both the ship and the souls aboard it, but ultimately Pip experiences it first hand in the midst of being stranded. “Multitudinous,” “God-omnipresent,” “Wondrous,” “Strange,” the sea itself is a vast thing that is describe by many words, both good and bad respectively, but Pip has a bit of a revelation here to the world below, one relatively unexplored by humans thanks to the confines of the 1800s. Melville makes a point to compared the ocean itself to something God-like because of this unknowingness. At least at the time, we can’t fully speak it like God’s name, and we can’t fully fathom what lurks below either. Pip’s soul actively drowning shows the draining quality of sea-life aboard the Pequod (and other ships given this perspective), yet the drowning also reveals that both the soul and the ocean itself is infinite. Infinitely unexplored, infinitely untapped, carried to “wondrous depths” that ultimately serve to show that human nature is limited in the eyes of God.

Ahab: His Mission, God’s Abandonement, and a Man’s Worldview Threatened

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Ahab’s biblical mirrors to king Ahab, is a humbling reminder that men can be abandoned, or punished by god. Despite the social constructions of hierarchy and power, men can still be the victims of the fragile patriarchal and monarchical structures they have created. The language Ahab uses to describe himself and his mission explores how despite his charade as the maniacal ruler of the Pequod, he was deeply wounded when he was scorned by God, or Moby Dick, so much so that his soul, his humanity, is in an altered state. The rage that fuels him and his newfound willingness to scorn and attack God, or nature, convey the fragility and desperation of men in power when their patriarchal worldview is threatened.

In Chapter 37, Sunset, he finds a frigid comfort in the security afforded to his position as Captain, which in turn, validates the prophecy that he previously attempted to avoid comparisons to. He muses about the weight of the ‘crown’ he wears: “‘Tis iron –that I know–not gold. ‘Tis split, too–that I feel; the jagged edge galls me so, my brain seems to beat against the solid metal; aye steel skull, min; the sort that needs no helmet in the most brain-battering fight.” Here we have insight into what continues to separate him from the common man, what excuses he tells himself to justify his remaining captain, a position above all other men on board. He is cut from a different cloth, as stated in previous chapters, he too believes he is Ungodly, and Godlike. He is made of Iron metal, and unkillable, but as he states, this position is in direct contrast to his nature.

Ahab has lost all connection and appreciation of nature: “ Oh! Time was when the sunrise nobly spurred me, so the sunset soothed me. No more. This lovely light, it lights not me; all loveliness is anguish to me, since I can ne’er enjoy it. Gifted with the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most subtly and most malignantly! Damned in the midst of Paradise! (182)” He is Surrounded by the beauty and splendor of the open ocean, which seems to have been his heaven on earth, his paradise, but he can enjoy none of it. Ahab is like a dead man walking. He is completely disconnected from God and fueled only by anger and rage, which is focused on Moby Dick. Because his revenge against Moby, is an afront to all nature, he can no longer rejoice and partake in it’s beauty.

Ahab seems to still be surprised that he was removed from his position at the top of the food chain: “it was Moby Dick that dismasted me, Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now(177).” Even though he has long since physically recovered from his injury, and embarked on this new voyage with the sole mission of revenge, he is still somewhat stupefied from the idea that he was humbled in what he excelled at, hunting whales. Ahab’s mission to kill Moby dick, is a mission to dominate God through his attempt to triumph over nature. Not only does he proclaim to see out the prophecy of his own doom, but he continues to scorn god by stating: ““The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and – Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophecy that I will dismember my dismemberer. Now then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That’s more than ye, ye great gods, ever were(183).” By describing losing his leg to the whale as ‘dismasting’ and ‘dismembering,’ we understand that this act by the whale, or by god, threatened his masculinity. His acts of madness, his exertion of force amongst the crew, and intimidation of Starbuck, are paltry attempts by him to restore his masculinity and power through his position at the top of the hierarchy. Starbucks questioning of this mission means nothing to him, when he has already been visibly humbled by nature. 

The biblical comparisons between the doomed King Ahab, the lamentation of the natural, and repetitive emphasis of his dismemberment, serve to emphasise the spiritual fall from grace he has experienced, as well as his disenchantment with worldly conventions of rank, masculinity, and patriarchy. They become only tools for revenge. His crew have a right to feel fearful of him, as his dismantled preconceptions of the world and what he was owed, as a captain, as a strong and virile man, have now been dismantled by a whale. His revenge is not rooted in redeeming himself, or a position in the larger world structure that he no longer believes in, rather he has accepted he has one foot in the grave, and is intent on taking the whale, and his crew with him, as a final hurrah in the face of God. A world that no longer serves him, a man of formerly famed prestige, is not one that he cares to take pleasure in.

Extracting Extracts

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The multitude of differing opinions on the whales presented in these extracts, provides a fascinating view on the history of whale culture throughout time. In particular, I favored three extracts that I feel encapsulates the relationship between humans, industrial society, and whales. The first extract comes from the Book of Isaiah, which is based on the prophet Isaiah from 8th Century BC;

“In that day, the Lord with his sore, and great, and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea” —Isaiah 

Considering how old this text is, I was astonished to see the recurring mention of the whale, known to them at the time, as a “Leviathan.” In terms of biblical texts, the word Leviathan is reserved to only the most powerful monstrous creatures of chaos. Framing our mindset towards the creature to be that of fear, particularly of its grandness and unpredictability—stemming from our lack of control over this beast.  

This extract paints a scene of two powerful forces, the Lord and the Leviathan as oppositions, furthering the idea that the Sea is the dominion of chaos and danger. Even the Lord wishes to vanquish this “dragon,” demonstrating not only the Lord position, but also the position of power the sea and whale hold—if only the Lord is capable of slaying the creature. 

The second extract that drew my interest, concerned the relationship of the sea to human industry;

“A tenth branch of the king’s ordinary revenue, said to be grounded on the consideration of his guarding and protecting the seas from pirates and robbers, is the right to royal fish, which are whale and sturgeon. And these, when either thrown ashore or caught near the coasts, are property of the king.” —Blackstone 

Our class discussions have led us to discuss the idea of coastlines representing boundaries of nations, especially considering there is no way to establish borders due to their fluidity. 

The idea of “royal fish” is an intriguing concept for two reasons; the first being that the Whale is considered a “royal fish. Breaking away from the stereotype of Whales being in opposition to God (as I discussed in the last extract) to having a formal relationship where they’re recognized by a sovereign as righteous. The second reason being that the concept of “royal fish” by law, means that this parliament is trying to claim ownership, establish their own border within the sea. It’s a bold endeavor that highlights the fallibility of attempting to conquer the seas, and also opens up the proposition of the sea representing itself as its own state. If the laws of the land extend out into the sea, then the sea can be considered its own sovereignty. 

The last extract I wanted to discuss, combines both of my previous points in a much more poetic narrative way; 

“No, Sir, ‘tis a Right Whale,” answered Tom; “I saw his spout; he threw up a pair of as pretty rainbows as a Christian would wish to look at. He’s a real oil-butt, that fellow!” —Cooper’s Pilot 

This scene depicts a beautiful moment of a person witnessing a rare phenomenon and equating it to the memory of God. However, in the very next sentiment, the person’s view shifts, seeing the value the whale can provide, rather than viewing the whale itself. 

This kinship to God, shows the divinity and power this creature holds over the human physic, much like God, this creature creates miracles. Unfortunately, in the same sense, humans view the whale as a source of use rather than worship—-being a summation of what it can provide for our industry, rather than a beautiful Godly creature. This juxtaposition is jarring and really goes to show the conflicting narrative history involving the Great Whale.