Tag Archives: week 6

Ishmael and Death

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In Chapter 7, “The Chapel,” Ishmael goes into a Whaleman’s Chapel the day before his departure from Nantucket. He claims that there are very few people who would fail to visit the church the day before their departure out to sea, making it seem like God would favor those who step foot in the chapel before their journey on the water, over those who don’t. As Ishmael enters the chapel he takes of note of the memorials engraved into marble tablets on the wall, each one marking the death of a man at sea. Two of the three memorials Ishmael takes note of involves death that was caused by a whale, obviously something that would make someone going out on a whaling boat the next day a little uneasy. Towards the end of the chapter Ishmael begins to talk about fate and death, “I regarded those marble tablets, and by the murky light of that darkened, doleful day read the fate of the whalemen who had gone before me. Yes, Ishmael, the same fate may be thine” (Melville 42). Death follows those who go on whaling ships, whether you’re a sailor, a captain, a cook, or a commodore, both the sea and death will treat you all the same. Even if none of the crew mates die, the very idea of whaling involves the killing of whales and the exploitation of the sea.

Ishmael knows this. He knows the dangers of going out to sea, that each day is he just as vulnerable to succumb to the power of the ocean as the day before and the day after. Ishmael is aware of what he is getting himself into. However, it does not seem to bother him: “Yes, there is death in this business of whaling – a speechlessly quick chaotic building of a man into Eternity. But what then? Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance… In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me” (Melville 42). Death does not seem like something Ishmael is afraid of. He does not believe that his body defines who he is, but his soul and his spirit that makes the man. The death of his body is not the death of Ishmael, and he is not afraid of what he may face. I will be interested to see if Ishmael keeps the same sentiment while on his voyage, or if the dangers that await will change his attitude.

Moby Dick : Chapters 4 – 12

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As I am starting to read these chapters, what has really been apparent to me is the way in which Herman Melville uses Ishmael’s observations of Queequeg to demonstrate both inherent bias and shifting perspectives.

The quote “Thinks I, Queequeg, under the circumstances, this is a very civilized overture, but, the truth is, these savages have n innate sense of delicacy, say what you will; it is marvelous how essentially polite they are. I pay this particular compliment to Queequeg, because he treated me with so much civility and consideration, while I was guilty of great rudeness…” (Melville 10) is, to me, a perfect example of what Melville is using the observations of Ishmael to convey. Within this quote, we are able to see the way in which Ishmael feels about Queequeg have shifted from the first three chapters of the book. Initially he is frightened of Queequeg because of his appearance and the internal bias he has against those both of a different race and those of a different way of living. I think this quote shows just how much Ishmael has started to shift his opinion on Queequeg and is understanding that he does have these biases. In this quote, he talks about Queequeg in a kind manner, saying that ‘savages’ are actually very polite when just the chapter before he was petrified to even be in the same room as someone he sees as a savage or a cannibal. He also acknowledges how his own biases led him to be rather rude and unfair to Queequg initially and how in response, Queequeg was kind to him rather than being rude back to him.

I think this quote and these first few chapters in general really do a great job emphasizing how much Ishmael is experiencing a change of perspective and a shift from what he already thought he knew. I am very curious to see how this open-mindedness continues to be utilized throughout the story as he continues to meet people who are completely different than him and ahve goals that may not align with his.

question your values in order to understand more about yourself

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Chapters 4 through 12 had a few recurring themes such as questioning your own values, questioning the religious values imposed upon you, and even queer tendencies within seamen. Although these themes are beautifully presented and questioned throughout the chapters, I was in awe of the way Ishmael opened up to the reader about changing/challenging personal values and being more self aware in general. In chapter 10, A Bosom Friend, Ishmael is grappling between his own religious values and those of his dear friend Queequeg. Ishmael describes a spiritual like feeling toward his friend and rather than dismissing it, he practiced the art of opening up and accepted this curiosity.

“I began to be sensible of strange feelings. I felt a melting in me. No more my splintered heart and maddened hand were turned “I began to feel myself mysteriously drawn towards him. And those same things that would have repelled most others, they were the very magnets that thus drew me…Christian kindness has proved hollow courtesy.” (Melville, 57)

Ishmael was willing to question his own values and felt peace in not allowing what is expected of him to keep him from understanding more about himself and his new friend Queequeg. He found beauty in the unknown.That can be reflected in his love for the ocean. The ocean is filled with the unknown and sets Ishmael free in a way even prior to sailing on the boat. Ishmael can freely question his values and the religious values imposed on him. Things aren’t so simple and settled like on land but free and ever changing like taking to sea.

Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy

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Melville presents the readers with an aversion to Christianity, presented frequently throughout the text by the relationship between Queequeg and Ishmael. Starting all the way back in Chapter 3 with the line, “Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” (26), he spends much of the chapters proceeding it focusing on the kind of man that Queequeg is and the way that he treats Ishmael as well as others surrounding them. Despite having three chapters focused on the importance of religion and practices, they are still dotted with the presence of Queequeg and internal dialogue such as “but Faith, like the jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope,” (42). 

Christianity is painted as opportunistic, almost parasitic in the way that it prays on the fears, doubts, and hopes of the sailors and their families in New Bedford. “…few are the moody fisherman, shortly bound for the Indian Ocean or Pacific, who fail to make a Sunday visit to the (Whaleman’s Chapel). I am sure that I did not” (39). Each person is compelled to attend the weekly sermon, one way or another, and not even Ishmael is able to avoid it. Yet later, when he is observing Queequeg, he makes another startling statement: “I’ll try a pagan friend, thought I, since Christian kindness has proved but hollow courtesy” (57). 

Perhaps there will be a time when we understand Ishmael’s continued heretical talk against the religion that he claims he was born into (58), but as of now Queequeg is painted as an innocent, sweet man who is alien to the culture he lives amongst yet willing still to respect and attempt to understand it – which is more than can be said of Christians in relation to religions outside of their own.

Week 6: Queequeg and Ishmael

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The change that occurs between Queequeg and Ishmael, as well as the further development of their friendship, is worthy of note. In the beginning chapters, Ishmael constantly repeats the narrative that ignorance is the parent of fear and that he has underlying prejudices against Queequeg because he is a cannibal. That being said, later in our reading, it is written that, “[Queequeg] seemed to take to me quite as naturally and unbiddenly as I to him; and when our smoke was over, he pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me round the waist, and said that henceforth we were married…that we were bosom friends; he would gladly die for me…” (57). To see such a shift in their dynamic after a mere two days in each other’s company is conflicting, given the apparent observation. Whether romantic or platonic, their dynamic mirrors the ever-shifting relationship that people have with the ocean.

The ocean is constantly changing, and while there are various descriptions throughout the novel that highlight the world’s fascination with the ocean and the fear that it holds towards the depths and its inhabitants, there is always something that ends up luring them out into its vastness. Ishmael’s quick change towards Queequeg is representative of the change in attitude towards the ocean and its dangers; yes, Queequeg is a cannibal, but after finding the time to pick him apart and get to know his peculiar habits and behavior, Ishmael has developed a strong connection and understanding of his friend, having been lured in by his peculiarities and affection. With understanding and patience comes a sense of stability and safety, one that can be found alongside Queequeg, as well as traversing the unknown expanses of the ocean.

Where Comfort meets Discomfort: A Lesson in Opposites

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In Chapter 11, “Nightgown,” Ishmael muses: “Nothing exists in itself. If you flatter yourself that you are all over comfortable and have been so a long time, then you cannot be said to be comfortable anymore.” (Melville 59) On the surface, this might be a casual observation about lying in bed, but the phrasing suggests something larger to me. Ishmael reveals that human experience is always relational. Comfort only matters when set against discomfort, just as light only has meaning when contrasted with darkness. This small moment becomes a window into Melville’s larger project: a novel that is less about fixed truths than about oppositions and tensions that define how we see the world.

For the book as a whole, I think that this insight resonates with the way Moby-Dick constantly frames the sea in these sorts of paradoxical terms. The ocean is vast yet suffocating, a space of both freedom and imprisonment, life and death. Just as Ishmael can only recognize comfort when he knows discomfort, he (and the reader) can only approach the meaning of the sea by holding together its contradictions. This shows that the novel is not about mastering or defining the ocean but about living within its shifting, relational nature. Ishmael’s comment in this chapter reads almost like a thesis statement for the entire narrative: nothing in this world exists as a single, stable entity. Everything takes shape through contrast, through relation, and through constant and fluid change.

This is why the moment with Queequeg is so significant. Ishmael’s newfound comfort sharing a bed with someone who once seemed strange or threatening underscores the novel’s interest in difference as a necessary condition for understanding. Without his earlier unease, Ishmael’s warmth with Queequeg would not stand out as meaningful. On a small scale, the line about comfort captures Ishmael’s transition from suspicion to intimacy. On a larger scale, it anticipates the way Melville’s novel demands that we hold opposites together, rather than separate and resolve them.

What makes this moment in Chapter 11 so powerful is how it condenses so many of the novel’s concerns into one simple observation. Ishmael isn’t just thinking about whether he feels warm and at ease in bed; he’s actually reflecting on how human life (and the ocean) can only be understood through contrast, tension, and change. The same principle applies to his friendship with Queequeg, to the sea that both unsettles and attracts him, and to the very shape and format of the novel itself, how it constantly weaves together opposites without trying to resolve them. By pausing on this line, I could see how Melville uses Ishmael’s everyday musings to point us to the larger philosophical questions that run beneath his story: how do we find meaning in a world defined not by its stability, but more so by its shifting contrasts?

Ishmael foreshadows a prominent future event. 

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Throughout these chapters, what I noticed, or I believe to be a foreshadowing event is when Ishamel slowly woke up from a nightmare. The passage states, “At last, I must have fallen into a troubled nightmare of a doze; and slowly waking from it half steeped in dreams—I opened my eyes, and the before sun-lit room was now wrapped in outer darkness. Instantly I felt a shock running through all my frame; nothing was to be seen, and nothing was to be heard.” (Melville 29). This passage is portraying a future event where Ishmael will be woken up from a nightmare, and instead of seeing his sun-lit room now wrapped in outer darkness, Ishamel will be seeing the vast ocean at night where darkness will completely swallow the whole ocean. He will experience the void of nothingness, where he felt shocked and trapped in the middle of nowhere. Ishmael’s dream of being the most promising port for an adventurous whaleman will be crushed due to the mysteries of the sea. We all know that every man who travels through the sea have hopes and dreams of being recognized due to their efforts, but once they experienced the true terror of the sea, they will realize that everything they have ever wished for were just a hoax, and that the terror is waiting for them on the other side of the earth. Another interesting point I wanted to make is that the way Ishmael and Queequeg act in front of each other is very suspicious. I feel like they both like each other, but at the same time, referring to themselves as ‘friendship’ feels a little off. My theory is perhaps back then, homosexuality was not recognized yet, so both Ishmael and Queequeg who liked each other’s company decided that it is just an intimate friendship, and that they were very close to each other. But the truth is they like each other, and want to spend time together like other couples do. Or perhaps I am completely wrong and my theory is literally me being delusional about it. I would love to hear everyone’s perspective on these chapters next week. 

Chapter Ten

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In these chapters of Moby-Dick, Melville offers us a deeper look into the relationship between Ishmael and Queequeg. We could interpret their connection as more than a simple growing friendship; there are elements of a romantic bond, as described by Melville. This interpretation is particularly interesting given the cultural context of the 19th century, where queer relationships were rarely, if ever, represented openly in literature. Seeing such intimacy written in this novel, in this way, can show how people at that time resisted or ignored the possibility of a queer narrative. In modern day, we are more exposed to queer narratives and can easily point out when artwork is queer; unlike in the 19th century, when representation was kept minimal.

Chapter 10 especially emphasizes both the physical and emotional closeness between Ishmael and Queequeg. Ishmael describes how Queequeg “pressed his forehead against mine, clasped me around the waist, and said that henceforth we were married.” (Melville 57) The way that Melville worded this is striking, not only for its tenderness, but also for implying a relational permanency between the two with the term “married”. Later, Ishmael continues, “thus, then, in our hearts’ honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg — a cosy, loving pair.” (Melville 28) These scenes show the intimacy between the two sailors, hinting at a relationship rooted in devotion to one another. 

What makes this chapter especially significant is not only the intimate dedication between Ishmael and Queequeg, but also the way their bond has been understood—or dismissed—over time. Some readers see their relationship as purely platonic, reflecting the deep companionships sailors often formed, while others interpret the affectionate and even erotic language as evidence of a queer connection. How readers respond to these passages depends greatly on the cultural lens of the time. In the 19th century, queerness was rarely acknowledged; the term “homosexuality” itself was not coined until the late 19th century, as early as the 1960s, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia — about 10 years after the release of Moby-Dick. This does not mean that queer relationships did not exist, but rather that society lacked the language and openness to recognize them. Reading Moby-Dick today, in a time when queer relationships are more visible and celebrated, allows us to see possibilities in Ishmael and Queequeg’s intimacy that may have been overlooked in earlier years. This contrast across time highlights how literature can be reinterpreted by different audiences, reflecting changed understandings.