Mar 05 2010
The Beginning of the End of the Pequod
Ahab’s maniacal obsessive mind finally takes full control in the chapter The Quadrant. This instrument is used to measure the position of the sun in order to determine a ship’s latitude. Ahab decides that it is useless on his quest to find Moby Dick, exclaiming
Foolish toy! Babies’ plaything of haughty admirals, and commodores, and captains…Science! Curse thee thou vain toy; and cursed be all the things that casts man’s eyes aloft to that heaven…Curse thee thou quadrant! No longer will I guide my earthly way by thee…thus I split and destroy thee!” (481)
Ahab proceeds to crush the quadrant by stepping on it with both his foot and peg-leg. This dramatic display of the destruction of this tool signifies the disintegration of Ahab’s sanity and the loss a sense of reality. By ruining the Pequod’s navigation instrument, Ahab is left in complete control of the ship’s course and direction. No sound, stable tool can help guide the ship in a reasonable manner. The sailors are left to depend on the fallible mind of their captain, an almost definite sign that the ship will be wrecked and end in doom. By crushing the very tool that can provide a practical mapping for the Pequod to follow a logical course, Ahab exerts himself and his authority over science and in a broader sense, destiny and the larger external forces that affect human lives. Again, this bold gesture serves as an omen that hints of Ahab’s destruction by a man-made object (the harpoon line) that has yet to occur. It also implies the Pequod’s downfall, as all the sailors can do is to follow their insane Captain on his brazen quest to seek revenge upon an angry whale. Breaking the quadrant in a way removes any hope the men, especially Starbuck, might have of ending their journey and finding their way safely back home.
One Response to “The Beginning of the End of the Pequod”
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I love the quote you use for one reason: it shows Ahab’s folly. In all probability, Ahab thinks of himself as a forward-thinking pragmatist. Yes, he is mad, but in a sense that simply means he is intensely motivated toward a concrete goal. However, science to Ahab represents a distracting ideal—in order for the quadrant to be accurate, one must have faith in its function in and application to the natural world. Ahab trusts the quadrant no more than he trusts the sun, because Ahab finds faith distracting and lazy. Our captain is a single-minded man; he wants to chase Moby Dick, and he wants to do so by the power of empirical evidence and his own vengeful observation. For Ahab, the hunt is personal. Certainly, a faith in science begets a dependence on technology, and in Ahab’s mind, using technology on his hunt would bastardize the entire expedition.