Moby Dick

           Throughout the novel of Moby Dick, Herman Melville presents the whale in various ways, and these different methods of presentation serve various purposes in how the Herman Melville would, presumably, like the reader to perceive the whale. As the sperm whale is the object of the hunt in the novel, the descriptions of this species are generally the most important.

            The first main mention of the sperm whale comes relatively early in the novel, in the thirty-second chapter, which is entitled “Cetology.” The very first description of the sperm whale is that

“He is, without doubt, the largest inhabitant of the globe; the most formidable of all whales to encounter; the most majestic in aspect; and lastly, by far the most valuable in commerce; he being the only creature from which that valuable substance, spermaceti, is obtained” (Melville, 129).

This description serves to make the plot of the novel more impressive to the reader and to add suspense to the moment in which the sperm whale is first “encounter[ed]” (Melville, 129.) As the chapter does, in many ways, come from a cetological and taxonomic viewpoint, however, this first description of the sperm whale can be viewed as a scientific one.

            There are several other descriptions of the sperm whale that serve to add an element of excitement and fear to the novel, such as in chapter forty-one, where Ishmale states that the sperm whale is “fearfully distinguished from all other species of Leviathan” and adds that many experienced and courageous whalers, refuse to hunt the sperm whale because of its “monst[rous]” nature (Melville, 173). Another example that adds to the intimidation of this species of whale is the mention in forty-fifth chapter that sperm whales can have a tendency to attack the ships that hunt them – a statement that ends up being foreshadowing. In the 133^rd chapter, “The Chase – The First Day,” Moby Dick “shoot[s] his pleated head lengthwise beneath the boat” and takes “its bows full within his mouth” (Melville, 526).

            The first encounter with the sperm whales occurs during the forty-eighth chapter, entitled “The First Lowering.” In this chapter, the whales are almost described as being a force of nature and completely one with the sea – “All four boats were now in keen pursuit of that one spot of troubled water and air” (Melville, 219). While this is literally the state of the particular area of ocean as caused by the whales, this can also be viewed as metonymy. This use of metonymy instills a sense of mystery, intangibility, and uncontrollability in the reader about the whales. In the same hunt, the whales are compared to an earthquake (Melville, 218). This hunt ends in failure and disaster, with the whale escaping, the boat capsizing, and the men stranded for a night. As Moby Dick has already been presented as the fiercest and most difficult to catch of all whales, the fact that the hunt of other sperms whales ends so badly sets a feeling of unease in the reader of what is to come.

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