Jan 31 2010
Invisible Ishmael
The first line of Moby Dick draws the reader close into the mind of the narrator, with his command, “call me Ishmael,” (Melville, For the first 21 chapters, and presumably the whole text, we see the word through the eyes of the enigmatic Ishmael. We know his thoughts, feelings, and deepest opinions. However, he himself is invisible. We see what he sees, but have no way to look at him as a character. Melville forces us to piece together the central figure of the book through his feelings, opinions, and subtle allusions to his past.
In the first chapter, Ishmael explains why he goes to sea, and why he will never go as a passenger; he has no money and he enjoys the freedom of the forecastle deck. He acknowledges that, as a common sailor,
they rather order me about some…and at first, this sort of thing is unpleasant enough. It touches one’s sense of honor, particularly if you come of an old established family in the land, the Van Rensselars, or Randolphs, or Hardicanutes. And more than all, if just previous to putting your hand into the tarpot, you have been lording it as a country schoolmaster…the transition is a keen one, I assure you, from a schoolmaster to a sailor. (Melville, 4)
Ishmael speaks in the third person, but he clearly speaks of himself . We have a glimpse of his past as a blue-blooded, well educated, and powerful individual. This, of course, makes the reader wonder what happened to turn Ishmael from the son of some wealthy house to a penniless sailor. The answer seems to lie in Melville’s own life. Melville was born to an important New York Dutch family, well-educated, and spent several years teaching school before signing on as a deck hand to sail to Liverpool. Ishmael is clearly modelled on his creator, Herman Melville. The author seems to be purposefully obscuring the face of Ishmael so that we might not notice it is actually him.
There may be an additional reason for Ishmael’s obscurity. It allows the reader to put a bit of himself into the character. Perhaps this is one of the reason this book rings so true for so many. Through Ishmael, the reader can get into this world, know the characters, and experience the same adventures and change of hearts as the elusive narrator. We cannot hold a mirror up to him to see what he looks like, allowing us to use him as a window instead.
(New York: Signet Classic, 1998)
One Response to “Invisible Ishmael”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Nina, you are absolutely right — Ishmael is a powerful narrator, and yet an invisible one. This is an interesting thing to notice early on in the novel, and I’m glad you pointed out how easily and quickly he slips into the third person when referring to generalizations (or himself). Keep noticing throughout the novel the moments where IShmael seems to “disappear” and then reappear or reinsert himself suddenly into the text.