Mar 01 2010
The Epilogue
The Epilogue to Moby Dick provides the reader a chance to psychoanalyze Ishmael. At this point at the end of the novel the reader is now intimately familiar with Ishmael and comes to expect a certain kind of commentary from him on significant events. I argue however that there is nothing unexpected in the Epilogue, and instead Ishmael responds in the exact way that we as readers should expect him to.
Notice Ishmael’s cold and detached tone when describing the apocalyptic scene around him. This might seem surprising to some, however we have read the novel, and as such we as readers wouldn’t expect anything to make Ishmael jump out of his seat in a show of extraversion. This is not to say that Ishmael does not understand the severity of the situation he has found himself in, but instead Ishmael simply continues to be himself and describes the scene in the same way he has described everything else in the novel that he narrated regardless of how epic. I feel like we would have much more to talk about if Ishmael suddenly sounded like an Old Testament prophet proclaiming the woes of his plight, now that would have been strange! So while yes, we do expect to hear Ishmael end his moments of narration with some sort of philosophic insight on the matter at hand, I believe it is quite understandable why on the surface it seems that Ishmael does not comment on the significance of his situation. Most notably is the fact that this Epilogue seems to be coming from a time that is somewhat removed from the events of the rest of the novel. As a result Ishmael would be of the mindset that he had just explained the significance of his story for roughly 500 pages and in the Epilogue there is nothing to say except “The End”.
There is no need for one final philosophic statement at the end of the Epilogue because the purpose of “Moby Dick” as a whole would have been to help Ishmael sort out his understanding of all of the events that led to his being the sole survivor of the tragedy. Additionally, if Ishmael were to make an insightful statement here, it arguably would lessen some of the beauty that is Melville’s vision for the novel. It is astounding how many valid readings there are to take from the novel, and Melville likely understood that his symbolism could be interpreted many different ways. Honestly, had Ishmael concluded the Epilogue by saying “And now I know that man can not defeated God” I would have felt rather let down. Wouldn’t a clear statement about the macro intention of the work have belittled each wonderfully crafted statement along the way? We know how Ishmael feels about Moby Dick, Ahab, Queequeg, and all of the other people and things mentioned in the story, great literature does not need an Aesop-esque moral at the end.
The Epilogue is not without its symbolism or meaning; it is quite possible for one to spend a very long time thinking about the significance of Ishmael being saved by Queequeg’s coffin, or what it means for Ishmael to have been the rescued orphan of the Rachel, but when discussing matters of narrator and narration through a psychoanalytical lens it becomes far more important that we recognize why it is that Ishmael seemingly chooses to ignore this symbolism that at other times in the novel he would’ve been all over. Ishmael believes his work is done at this point in the novel, and it is now up to the reader to think through this symbolism without Ishmael, or Melville for that matter, holding their hand.
3 Responses to “The Epilogue”
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While we have certainly seen a sort of flattened affect and emotional distance from Ishmael before in the novel, I read its presence in the epilogue in a slightly different way than you. As someone commented in class, actually, this passage brought to my mind as well Ishmael’s comment in the first chapter about “pistol and ball”; he went eagerly aboard the Pequod and accepted all that lay ahead to get away from the comfort of land and himself where he was feeling practically suicidal. For me, this emotionally empty epilogue is a full circle return in a way to the beginning. It is true what you say – that no powerful, indulgent comment is made to address what most would call the “miracle” of Ishmael’s survival. I agree it would be an honest disappointment for the reader. Beyond that, though, I think it makes a bold comment on Ishmael’s character and the entire narrative: perhaps for him, as for the reader, the interest and excitement and emotion lay only in the adventure of the Pequod. Contrary to you, many times in the text I did feel surges of incredible emotion and existentialism and powerful writing. Now that the Pequod and all it contained has been drowned, Ishmael lies in the coffin as he will on land: empty, distant, and if I wanted to push it, practically dead to life.
I agree with your reading of The Epilogue and how that it is done with the same tone that Ishmael uses throughout the entire book- especially in the beginning when he talks about his thoughts of violence, suicide, and depression. Also, given the many themes and controversies that Melville’s writing conveys, I think that it is only fitting for Moby Dick to end in a way that leaves a lot of room for interpretation by the reader and many things to think about. Melville’s writing of Moby Dick is constantly challenging the reader to consider issues such as religion, race, nature, goodness, evil, fate, etc. and there is room for many different interpretations of the book. Similarly, I think that this is somewhat also what he does with the epilogue. Ishmael has gone on for 500 pages telling the story, the epilogue gives the ending, and now the reader can do with the information given by Ishmael what they want.
It’s interesting that you tie the ending in to the “pistol and ball” from the beginning of the book. When I read the epilogue, I found something incredible beautiful and sad about the last sentence: “It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.”
I have wondered, and this may be a bit far fetched, whether the entire story occurred in Ishmael’s head, as the result of his internal dialogue over whether to kill himself or not, with Ahab representing the part of him that, despite knowing that it is wrong, feels compelled by a force bigger than himself to just do it, and Starbuck representing the things he has to live for. With both Ahab and Starbuck both dying at the end of the novel, and Ishmael seeing himself as “only another orphan,” rootless and abandoned, he doesn’t seem to get any closer to knowing what to do than he did at the beginning of the novel.
That said, I also couldn’t have imagined the epilogue in any other tone than the one Ishmael uses. At this point, at the risk of sounding cheesy, there is so much to say and feel that the only way Ishmael feels he can do justice to it is through his silence.