Mar 05 2010
Ahab great speech in The Symphony
For my last blog post I’m going to take a break from nature and the environment to discuss one of my favorite scenes in this novel. When we were discussing in class how Ahab’s speech during the chapter “The symphony” was one of the greatest written portions of this book, I really couldn’t help but to agree. In this chapter we see Ahab bare his soul to Starbuck in a way that completely and tragically humanized him as a character. It left the tone of the rest of the novel in a sort of determinist, and again tragically drawn out opera of moments. We knew he was going to die, we knew he might take others with him, but it was the way things had to unfold. They just couldn’t go any other way. This is why I believe this chapter is called the symphony, because at this point the novel seemed really like a great piece of music, with the meloncholy notes already written, just not yet played. And yes I know how dramatic I sounded just now. From this chapter we really knew how it all might end. Even the rest of the book seemed to rise to a musical climax of chase and confrontation, and end as mournfully as we knew it would.
“…lower not when I do; when branded Ahab gives chase to Moby Dick. That hazard shall not be thine. No, no! Not with the far away home I see in that eye!”
How at this point could any hatred the reader had towards Ahab not be replaced by a sort of resigned sadness. This crazy obsessed man just described how possessed he was by this vengeance he could not stop, and begged his first mate not to go with him, because he wanted him to return home at least. Starbucks hatred and mutiny for the old man also somewhat died to be replaced by an admiration for this noble but dammed soul. Don’t get me wrong, I still blame Ahab and his obsession for destroying the lives of so many sailors and families, but Melville made it a point, at the very end, to sympathize with a character we’ve been afraid of and hated for most of the novel. When at the same time I dislike when authors make antagonists more complex and likable because it makes me more sad and less able to hate them, it is really a great addition to a character.
One Response to “Ahab great speech in The Symphony”
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I understand and enjoy your interpretation of Melville’s reasoning for titling this chapter, “The Symphony.” It seems too that there may be many multiple reasons for this, which I think is fun for the reader to imagine.
It’s interesting how you explain the title to be portending the disastrous ending of the book. I had not previously thought of it that way, as being “unwritten music,” so to speak. But, this makes sense now.
Myself, I took the title as indication of Ahab’s overwhelming emotion as expressed in his monologue, in that, for Ahab, this is a kind of cathartic release in the way that making music can be for many people. It seems here in the novel that Melville is using Ahab’s speech to culminate the course of the journey, and the text itself, in explaining Ahab’s fuller story, which had been hidden to the reader for the greater part of the text. Here, Ahab himself breaks down as the voyage and tale themselves begin to do.