Feb 25 2010
The ‘Spirit Spout’ through the lens of (slightly hyperbolic) realism
Ah, the Spirit Spout. The chapter that supposes the great whale is following the Peaquod. Rife with foreshadowing and ominous imagery, this chapter can also be read as a testimony to the serenity and solitude of the sea–and the tricks such solitude can play in the minds of men. Alone for an eternity without so much as a humpback to show for it, the crew of the Peaquod have become accustomed to an empty ocean; a monotonous, pristine blue-grey sheet that plods along til disappearing beneath the fog of the horizon. Once broken by a spout–real or imagined–the shattered serenity evokes nightmarish thoughts of monsters and fiendish leviathans. Indeed the sea has been for some time their peaceful feminine companion, but as becomes clear in “The Symphony,” it had begun to turn on them in their minds. No longer peaceful, serene, and feminine, the once calm sea now the portent of their impending downfall.
Sailors of a whaling vessel had little to go by in the way of guarantees. The industry of Melville’s era did not benefit from the technologies of today’s world. Fishing then was a crapshoot of epic proportions. For the men of Ahab’s craft, the prospects of a payday were ever-dwindling and the horror of their doom-bound journey was creeping ever steadily into their consciousness. These were men primed for a conjured sign–a affirmation of their terrible destiny. Form the standpoint of a psychologist, the Peaquod was a case study for the breeding grounds of group-effect driven hysteria. One man’s diluted vision yielded the panic (or beginnings thereof) of an entire crew.
2 Responses to “The ‘Spirit Spout’ through the lens of (slightly hyperbolic) realism”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I like this post a lot and I feel it is an important one, especially as foreshadowing operates so largely and heavily in the last 100 or so pages of the novel. All of these portents that are described so beautifully and eloquently add to the drama and suspense as we readers approach the climax between The Pequod and the white whale that we all know is coming. The irony is how anticlimactic Ahab’s death is…
I agree with daprentice- your post concisely captures “The Spirit Spout” and the state of the crew and ship at this point in the novel. The context surrounding the voyage and their lack of success is what drives the crew to follow Ahab. They needed a common point of belief, and the novel in essence tells the story of how and why they rallied around the insanity of Ahab as a means of coping with the external pressure of the profession. Even with disaster looming, they pressed on under his command towards the final scenes.