Jan 30 2010
A Study in Contrasts
The characters presented in the early chapters of Moby Dick are studies in contrast, with religion (and its attendant hypocrisy) sparring with realism or work. This framework allows Melville to unambiguously state his own positionality vis-à-vis the main narrator Ishmael. Ishmael is portrayed as the tolerant pragmatist, quietly decrying insidious forms of discrimination in New Bedford. Upon first seeing Queequeg enter his room at The Spouter-Inn, Ishmael remarks, ‘And what is it, thought I, after all! It’s only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin…’ (Melville 20) As their relationship matures, Ishmael finds Queequeg’s ‘paganism’ a more honest and noble mode of existence, in contradistinction to the ‘civilized hypocrisies’ and ‘bland deceits’ of the harsh Puritanism of New England.
If Christian kindness has proven itself hollow (Melville 49), the Pequod’s Captain Bildad becomes the representative of a certain form of piousness that cannot reconcile itself with the practicalities of everyday life, leading to Ishmael’s rebuke of Christianity. For Captain Peleg, Captain Bildad’s worst offense was his inaction during a particularly perilous journey to Japan with Captain Ahab. After presenting Queequeg with a tract titled “The Latter Day Coming; or No Time to Lose,” Bildad implores Peleg if he never considered God’s judgment in the moment of crisis in Japan. In a furious response, Peleg admonishes Bildad’s piousness;
“Hear him, hear him now,” cried Peleg, marching across the cabin, and thrusting his hands far down into his pockets,-“hear him all of ye. Think of that! When every moment we thought the ship would sink! Death and the Judgment then? No! No time to think about Death then! Life was what Captain Ahab and I was thinking of; and how to save all hands- how to rig jury-masts- how to get into the nearest port; that was what I was thinking of.” (Melville 88).
In conclusion, the foundational dichotomy between intolerant religious views and work (where one’s worth can only be gleaned through action, or the showing of practical skill in public view) frames this part of the story and informs Melville’s characterization. One can assume that this theme will be made even more manifest once the Pequod sets sail
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.
One Response to “A Study in Contrasts”
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Wonderful ideas here, Will — especially about how specific characters are meant to embody particular facets of human foibles or philosophies: Ishmael-as-pragmatist, or Bildad-as-pious-hyprocrite. Melville was very much fascinated by “types,” and by stereotyping, and he liked to play with them in his novels. He seems far more conscious of the contrasts you point out than Ishmael is, which is a clever way for Melville to explore human character — through a man like Ishmael who is by turns naive and observant, pragmatic and dreamy. You’ll meet the philosophical, dreamy Ishmael quite soon, and will see how that aspect of his character changes slightly your initial reading of him.
I like how you brought the conversation about character to bear on the religious discussions emerging in the novel. You are right to guess that Melville is going to test his characters’ and readers’ assumptions about religion as the Pequod sets sail.