Mar 01 2010
Captain Ahab’s Religious Duplicity
In Chapter 132, The Symphony, Captain Ahab and his crew look out to the sky, which is filled with flying birds and a clear blue sky. This view of the sky is depicted as peaceful and serene. However, below the ocean lies the trouble and true danger. The sharks, “mighty Leviathans” and swordfish lie there (page 774). Also at this time, Captain Ahab begins to grow weary and fearful on his journey to kill the White Whale. This fear from Captain Ahab goes against Christian faith because Christian faith states that one must not fear anything and one must have faith in their most dire and tiresome journeys. Captain Ahab begins to lose his faith and therefore is losing his Christian faith as well. “Slowly crossing the deck from the scuttle, Ahab leaned over the side, and watched how his shadow in the water sank and sank to his gaze, the more and the more that he strove to pierce the profundity. But the lovely aromas in that enchanted air did at last seem to dispel, for a moment, the cankerous thing in his soul” (775). This quote shows how Captain Ahab begins to lose his strength and faith as it figuratively begins to sink into the abyss of the sea. However, Captain Ahab also maintains some little faith as he enjoys smelling the scents in the air out on sea and this lovely scent purges that lack of faith from him. Interestingly enough he is both religious and irreligious because he struggles to completely maintain Christian faith and to relinquish Christian faith. Captain Ahab even beings to cry into the sea. Captain Ahab converses with Starbuck regarding his feelings and emotions. Ahab says, “Oh, Starbuck! is it not hard, that with this weary load I bear, one poor leg should have been snatched from under me? Here, brush this old hair aside; it blinds me, that I seem to weep. … But do I look very old, so very, very old, Starbuck? I feel deadly faint, bowed, and humped, as though I were Adam, staggering beneath the piled centuries since Paradise” (page 777). This quotation reinforces the fact that Captain Ahab is truly feeling drained and exhausted from his long journey and quest to kill the White Whale. Ahab also feels weary of this quest and begins to question whether or not he can fulfill his desire to exact revenge on the White Whale or to fulfill his desire of attaining peace and serenity. The fact that Captain Ahab wavers between these two opposing sides shows that he is religiously duplicitous.
4 Responses to “Captain Ahab’s Religious Duplicity”
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This idea of religious duplicity is interesting, Chris, as it assumes that Ahab has some calculated or deliberate feelings about casting off his Christianity — I wonder if that’s the case, or if his religious doubled perspective (both believer and non-believer) is an indication of a) his madness or b) the complexity of his character?
I think that this is a very interesting idea, but I think I take the environment as a reflection of Ahab’s religious feelings slightly differently. This is because Christianity does not teach that one should not be afraid, but instead that one should not fear anything but God. This puts us in pretty much the same place though we reached the conclusion from slightly different avenues. As a result I feel a more clear way of saying this is that Ahab fears God, and as a result the environment reflects his internal conflict because he respects the power that he is doing battle with while still knowing he must fight it.
I do agree with you, chschmitz, but isn’t it possible to look at this in the opposite fashion? You say that when Ahab looks out into the sea and starts to doubt his voyage, and this signifies him losing his faith. Couldn’t you also say that he had no faith to begin with (hence his lack of humanity) and in doubting himself, he is wishing he had some sort of faith? Everyone around him has something to depend on and something to hope for, but he has nothing. He has been so engrossed in this journey that he hasn’t stopped to doubt himself; he hasn’t thought that maybe having a faith or religion would benefit him.
Instead of seeing this passage as one where Ahab wavers in his Christian faith, I saw it as one where he wavers in his faith in The Chase. Ahab seems to live according to his faith in The Chase for Moby Dick more than he lives by Christian values. This moment of exhaustion shows Ahab questioning the legitimacy of his dedication to exacting revenge on Moby Dick.