Moby Dick

I really enjoyed reading this short story. Bartleby’s indifference and passivity reminded me somewhat of Mersault’s from Albert Camus’s The Stranger, as well as Peter Gibbons’s from the movie Office Space. Being assigned to the “Literary Allusions and Other Moments of Literature” category of our Moby Dick blog, I was intrigued by Melville’s reference to Cicero and why the narrator has a plaster-of-paris bust of the Roman philosopher in his office. In addition to being a philosopher, Cicero was also a lawyer and politician. Despite his opposition to the dictatorship of Gaius Julius Caesar, his political positions were inconsistent and tended to shift in response to changes in the political climate. While this may be a very subtle reference, I feel that Melville makes it to draw a parallel between Cicero and the narrator, as well as emphasize the narrator’s inability to take a firm position on how to handle the strange character of Bartleby. In addition to this allusion, Melville sums up the narrator’s character in the third paragraph of the story; he writes,

I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best… I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause… All who know me, consider me an eminently safe man. (Melville 5)

Melville characterizes the narrator as a “safe man” who always takes the path of least resistance. While the narrator tries to learn about Bartleby and does seem to ponder about his situation, he finds it much easier to leave Bartleby behind and fend for himself. He would like to be charitable and selfless, but he never goes out on a limb to help Bartleby. He never actually asks Bartleby if there is anything that he can do for him; he can only ask Bartleby to do things for him.

References:

Melville, Herman. “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.”http://www.enotes.com/bartleby-scrivener-text/bartleby-scrivener-1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicero

“The Forge” makes for an intriguing chapter regardless of the critical lens being used to analyze the text. When thinking about the narration in the story it is important to pay very careful attention to Melville’s choice of words as this gives us insight into how the given narrative voice feels about the scene. Through this, if the reader takes the description of the scene in “The Forge” seriously and analyzes specific word choices there can be seen indicators of where Melville intends to take the plot of the story and how he feels about the characters involved.

It is interesting to note the adjectives Ahab uses to describe the intended quality of this harpoon. Ahab wants to “…make the barbs sharp as the needle-sleet of the icy sea”, which conjures up interesting images. Though the scene of the forge is fiery and dark, the weapon itself is to be forged to be as powerful as the cold. I feel that in this word choice Melville is hinting at many possible conclusions to be drawn about the text. In Dante’s “Inferno” Satan himself sits in the lowest circle of hell encased not in flames like the rest of hell, but instead in ice. It is possible that Melville is hinting at the fact that Moby Dick is Satan himself because he resides in the icy sea, and Ahab’s madness has caused him to sell his soul and is using the power of evil in an attempt to fight another evil. Equally likely, and just as ominous, is that Ahab is actually intended to be the personification of Satan, and through the use of his cold weaponry he intends to do battle with God, Moby Dick.

When the reader takes into consideration that there is a quote from Paradise Lost inserted into the novel by Melville it makes the possibility of Ahab being linked to Satan even more likely. But then what can the reader make of the harpooners’ involvement in the scene? We have no reason to think that Queequeg is satanic, and even though he clearly does not follow the church Melville goes out of his way to present Queequeg in such a positive way throughout the whole novel that one should certainly be more inclined to associate him with the holy than the satanic. In light of this I would like to make a claim that I understand will be rather controversial. I believe that Melville inserted the harpooners into the scene to show that their association with Paganism did not make them unholy, but instead to show that a faith other than Christian Protestantism lends itself to having a greater chance of unintentional corruption. Notice that Ahab offers a benediction over the baptized harpoon in Latin, a language associated with Catholicism as opposed to Protestantism. This action seems to “other” the people involved in the scene by showing that while those involved may be similar to the others on the ship, gathered in this room are the people that reject determinism. Dagoo, Tashtego, Queequeg, Ahab, and Pip. While these characters all fall on different ends of the “good and evil” spectrum it is undeniable that there is something not Protestant about all of them for their own unique reasons.

I am fascinated by the possibility of this being Melville’s intent in writing this section of “The Forge”. What could this possibly mean for the rest of the novel? I frankly can not sort out in my mind what Melville is trying to say about determinism when we see both good and evil characters coming together sharing in this aspect of non-protestant faith. Perhaps this is what Melville wants the reaction of the reader to be. After all, is determinism a good thing or a bad thing? Free will is kind of a burden isn’t it? Would a loving God place the weight of free will on the shoulders of believers? That is definitely something I can’t answer in two pages!

At last! After 132 chapters of talking about and endlessly searching for him, we finally have encountered Moby Dick in the flesh. Up to this point, Melville has not really provided us with a lengthy description or compared Moby Dick to a mythological figure or concrete object as he has with so many other characters; the whale is simply an unknowable god-like entity. But in the first chase chapter, Melville finally provides us with a description of the white whale. He writes,

A gentle joyousness—a mighty mildness of repose in swiftness, invested the gliding whale. Not the white bull Jupiter swimming away with ravished Europa clinging to his graceful horns; his lovely, leering eyes sideways intent upon the maid; with smooth bewitching fleetness, rippling straight for the nuptial bower in Crete; not Jove, not that great majesty Supreme! did surpass the glorified White Whale as he so divinely swam. (Melville 596).

Melville likens Moby Dick to the king of gods, Jupiter, but in the form of a “white bull.” Melville is referencing the story of Europa, a beautiful Phoenician princess who was abducted by Jupiter. Jupiter fell in love with Europa and disguised himself as bull; he convinced her to get onto his back and then proceeded into the sea and swam to the island of Crete. I think that Melville references this story, not simply to imbue Moby Dick with a god-like aura and divine qualities, but also because it emphasizes the whale’s seductive powers over Ahab. While the story of Europa and Jupiter is not indistinguishable from Ahab and Moby Dick, there are certain parallels between the two. Much like the white bull, Moby Dick has this intriguing and irresistible quality that Ahab can not ignore; he has been consumed by this whale for the past year and has so to speak, climbed onto Moby Dick’s back and followed him half way around the world.

As we discussed in class, The Symphony chapter is very Shakespearen and Ahab’s long confession to Starbuck is reminiscent of King Lear. In addition to this Shakespearen reference, this chapter reminds me quite a bit of Greek tragedy, in particular Homer’s Iliad. Although they are not identical, the Trojan hero Hector and Captain Ahab share the characteristic of having a wife and young child at home. Hector is also fated to be killed by Achilles and even runs three laps around the city of Troy to stay away from the Greek soldier. In the same way that Hector knows that he eventually must confront Achilles (i.e. death), Ahab knows that he must fight Moby Dick. After Ahab reveals to Starbuck how much of his life he has regretted and Starbuck is hopeful that they might return to Nantucket, Ahab acquiesces and gives in to his death; he asks

What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time; recklessly making me ready to do what in my own proper, natural heart, I durst not so much as dare? Is Ahab, Ahab? Is it I, God, or who, that lifts this arm?… Aye, toil we how we may, we all sleep at last on the field. Sleep? Aye, and rust amid greenness. (Melville 592)

In the same way that Hector is reluctant to accept his fate, Ahab admits that there is nothing in his “natural heart” that would make him want to continue on this quest for Moby Dick. There is some “hidden lord” or “remorseless emperor” who controls Ahab’s decisions that he cannot fight much like Hector who is coerced into battle by the gods. This scene also has another reference to Greek mythology when Ahab concludes that he will “sleep at last on the field.” After their deaths, Greek heroes would rest in the fields of Elysium. Like a tragic Greek hero, Ahab believes that he will soon die and lay in the Elysian Fields rather than heaven.

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.

In Chapter 70, entitled The Sphynx, Ishmael describes the process by which the massive head of a sperm whale is decapitated and hung alongside the Pequod, “buoyed up by its native element”, i.e. , floating in the water (249). Ishmael describes, “It was a black and hooded head; and hanging there in the midst of so intense a calm, it seemed the Sphynx’s in the desert” (249).  The Sphinx, in Egyptian mythology was looked upon as a guardian of temples and the secrets that lay within them. In Greek mythology the Sphinx was sent to Thebes by the the Gods and would pose a riddle to those who wished to pass by and would kill those who failed to answer correctly. The Sphinx is represented not only as a guardian but also as a bearer of wisdom.

Ahab stares over the side of the ship at the head of the whale. He begins to speak to the decapitated head as if it were “the Sphinx of the Seas”, so to speak, the keeper of some ancient and vast knowledge of the deep, and of the horrors which have unfolded within it. A knowledge which itself reveals real truth. Ahab says:

. . .Speak mighty head, and tell us the secret thing that is in thee. Of all the divers, thou hast dived the deepest . . . thou hast has been where bell or diver never went . . . Oh head! thou hast seen enough to split the planets and make an infidel of Abraham . . .” (249).

The whale is conceived as something which has persisted throughout the ages and has come to an understanding of the intricacies of our world’s mechanisms; they have come to see and grasp the way in which the inner-cogs governing the its functioning.  Ahab, representative of mankind, deeply desires and struggles fruitlessly to attain this wisdom, admits that if even the most righteous man (e.g., Abraham) were to ever gain insight into these truths, he would be driven to evil. The attaining of the unattainable would be catastrophic. Although… doesn’t the search itself lead man partake in evil?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx

In the chapter The Musket, Starbuck’s soliloquy as he ponders his fate on the Pequod, reminds me of Lady Macbeth’s similar monologue when she resolves to do anything in her power to help Macbeth ascend to the throne.  Both characters contemplate committing murderous deeds to meet their desires.  Lady Macbeth summons her resolve and courage, declaring, “Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature/  Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between/ The effect and it!” (Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 1, scene 5).  She is unconcerned about the consequences of her actions, instead seeking to push away any thoughts of guilt. Starbuck, while holding a loaded musket, expresses the inner turmoil he feels towards his actions of obeying Ahab and the misgivings he has knowing that Ahab’s mission of killing Moby Dick may take the lives of the entire crew.  He says,

“But shall this crazed old man be tamely suffered to drag a whole ships company down to doom with him?—Yes, it would make him the willful murderer of thirty men and more if this ship come to any deadly harm; and come to deadly harm, my soul swears this ship will, if Ahab have his way.  If, then, he were this instant—put aside, that crime would not be his.” (493)

Ultimately, Starbuck is unable to use the weapon in his hands to commit a murder. In contrast, Lady Macbeth is determined to act within her power and resources to achieve her goals.  Aware of the fact that this may require immoral actions, she seeks to keep those thoughts from her mind and not concern herself with the consequences.  Unlike Lady Macbeth, Starbuck’s conscience is too strong to be overcome, even as he thinks of his wife and child.  Although Starbuck is tempted to use the musket in his hands, he is unable to complete the murderous act and kill Ahab.  This monologue reveals the debate in his mind over whether killing one man to save the lives of thirty men would absolve the act of murder.  Starbuck’s decision to spare Ahab shows the strength of his inner character and belief in acting in a morally conscious way, even while realizing that he may die by following his stubborn captain’s mission.

Macbeth in Moby Dick

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly: if th’ assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all — here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’ld jump the life to come.

—Macbeth, I.vii

Throughout Moby Dick, Melville repeatedly references the plays of Wm. Shakespeare, both directly and through parallel situations and characters.  What struck me most was the relationship between Starbuck and Ahab, which bears a great resemblance to that of many of Shakespeare’s most important duos.  What drives this relationship and its correlation to Shakespeare is the power dynamic, the question of loyalty versus morality and even selfishness.  The three pairs of characters that are most present in Melville’s text are Hamlet and Claudius (the Prince and King), Macbeth and Duncan (the Thane and King) and finally Brutus and Caesar (the Senator and Emperor).  In this post, I will be looking into Macbeth’s relation to the text

You might notice a theme among these pairs: they all have bloody ends for the regent, who begins the story with power.  Each of the characters, who begin in the more prostrate position in their dynamic, performs regicide.  They plot and plan the murder of their leader, yet in each case they question their motives.

The first example, which is stunning, is the relation to Macbeth that Starbuck displays in The Musket, in which he examines the rifle that Ahab had just pointed at him.  He contemplates mutiny, staring at the tool of his potential assassination, contemplating every inch of its lock, stock and barrel.  Similarly, Macbeth, immediately before he murders King Duncan in his bedchamber, has a vision of the dagger with which he will slaughter the King.  Each of them stand staring at these weapons, thinking on what they would gain by killing their leader.  What makes this instance even more interesting is where they diverge, though. Whereas Macbeth continues onward, slaughtering his strong, intelligent leader and descending into madness, Starbuck falters and does not go forward with his mutiny.  Macbeth goes insane while butchering a leader who was psychologically stable.  Starbuck on the other is psychologically stable and fails to murder his mad captain.

Melville makes direct reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with the title of Chapter 31, “Queen Mab”. In Scene IV of Romeo and Juliet Mercutio talks of Queen Mab “the fairies’ midwife” who visits men in their sleep driving “an empty hazelnut” chariot “athwart men’s noses as they lie asleep”.  She makes the sleeper dream of that which the dreamer’s desires, e.g., the soldier dreams “of cutting foreign throats”.

In Chapter 31 Stubb recounts a peculiar dream he had the night before to Flask. Stubb describes,

“You know the old man’s ivory leg, well I dreamed he kicked me with it; and when I tried to kick back, upon my soul, my little man, I kicked my leg right off! And then presto! Ahab seemed a pyramid and I, like a blazing fool, kept kicking at it.” (113)

Strangely, Stubb, even as he continues to kick Ahab, believes that Ahab’s kick “may not have been much of an insult” (113), after all it was not as if Ahab had kicked him with a living limb; according to Stubb, “. . . there’s a mighty difference between a living thump and a dead thump” (113). Suddenly “a badger-haired merman” appears in the dream and physically threatens Stubb if he does not stop kicking Ahab’s leg. The merman explains to Stubb that he should consider it’s an honor to be kicked “by a great man with a beautiful ivory leg” just as it is an honor “to be slapped by a queen” (114).

How can Stubb’s dream be interpreted with consideration of the title? Queen Mab makes men dream of what they desire. So, what does Stubb desire or fully expressed, what do his dream latently tell us about his desires? Does he passively wish to be “kicked”, i.e, dominated, by Ahab? If so, does the merman’s logic of honor behind passivity reflect Stubb’s own justification for subsuming to Ahab’s tyranny?

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/romeo_juliet/full.html

Chapter 82, entitled The Honor and Glory of Whaling, is chock-full of both cultural and literary allusions. In this chapter, Melville recounts the stories of biblical and mythological figures who have killed or triumphed over whales. The chapter begins as Ishmael remarks,

The more I dive into this matter of whaling, and push my researches up to the very spring-head of it, so much the more am I impressed with its great honorableness and antiquity and especially when I find so many great demi-gods and heroes, prophets of all sorts, who one way or other have shed distinction upon it, I am transported with the reflection that I myself belong, though but subordinately, to so emblazoned a fraternity. (Melville 395)

This passage and the chapter in general serve a dual purpose. It gives Melville another chance to display his knowledge of history, mythology, and scriptures, but it primarily functions as way for Melville to demonstrate to his readers that whales have been depicted as dangerous beasts throughout history, and sailors who willingly hunt these Leviathans are elevated into a heroic and almost god-like “fraternity.”

Melville’s first literary allusion describes the story of Perseus, who Melville defines as the “first whaleman.” Perseus was a hero from Greek mythology who saved the princess Andromeda from a “Leviathan” or whale. Melville writes,

The gallant Perseus, a son of Jupiter, was the first whaleman; and to the eternal honor of our calling be it said, that the first whale attacked by our brotherhood was not killed with any sordid intent. Those were the knightly days of our profession, when we only bore arms to succor the distressed, and not to fill men’s lampfeeders. (395)

This passage is a curious juxtaposition to the last one; in the first, Melville honors whalers by putting them in the same class as “demi-gods” and “heroes.” But, in this passage he implies that killing whales “to fill men’s lampfeeders” is a “sordid intent.” I get the feeling that Melville is conflicted by whaling; while he is incredibly impressed with the courageousness it takes to attack a giant and powerful animal, he also feels that hunting whales for the sole purpose of oil is not so honorable and heroic.

Despite this not so subtle political commentary, Melville goes on and adds St. George (religious saint), Hercules (demi-god), Jonah (prophet), and Vishnoo (Hindu god) to the “emblazoned fraternity.” Although Melville was a politically-minded individual, it seems his principal goal in this chapter is to establish whalers as a brave and fearless group, despite the immoral aspects of their job.