Moby Dick

In chapter 51 (“The Spirit-Spout”), Ishmael discusses how nature compares to men and their voyage:

These temporary apprehensions, so vague but so awful, derived a wondrous potency from the contrasting serenity of the weather, in which, beneath all its blue blandness, some thought there lurked a devilish charm, as for days and days we voyaged along, through seas so wearily, lonesomely mild, that all space, in repugnance to our vengeful errand, seemed vacating itself of life before our urn-like prow (210).

It’s intriguing how Ishmael (and seemingly the crew) seems almost to give the sea a personality and sense of agency. The sea, apparently, is aware of Ahab’s mission and is set on “vacating itself of life” so that nothing can be killed. This personification of the ocean is further reinforced by Ishmael’s description that the sea “heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience; and the great mundane soul were in anguish and remorse for the long sin and suffering it had bred” (210). At times in this chapter the sea is described in direct contrast to the sailors’ moods, yet at other times it appears to directly influence the mood of the crew. Ishmael discusses the sea as a place of doom:

Cape of Good Hope, do they call ye? Rather Cape Tormentoto, as called of yore; for long allured by the perfidious silences that before had attended us, we found ourselves launched into this tormented sea, where guilty beings transformed into those fowls and these fish, seemed condemned to swim on everlastingly without any haven in store, or beat that black air without any horizon (210).

It is fascinating to note how the sea (and nature) can be so filled with wide open promise and endless opportunity, but also can be a place akin to hell or purgatory, where one is doomed to roam for eternity. This is especially interesting when it is compared to Ishmael’s description of the sea in the first chapter. I wonder what a reader should understand about the sea through these various descriptions. Has Ishamel become disillusioned with sailing (thanks to Ahab)? Or has something else occurred here? Or is Ishmael (and Melville) allowing the sea to speak for him, by making it into another personality, another character in this novel?

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