Mar 05 2010
Everything in Its Right Place
And only I am escaped alone to tell thee.
Ishmael introduces his epilogue with this quote from Job I. In response, I’d like to share another quote from the same chapter of the Bible:
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
As a reader, my impression of Ishmael was that he is as balanced a narrator as any. He constantly interjects with all sorts of cetological and philosophical musings and odd stylistic choices—and one might even say these are specifically Melville’s doing, and not Ishmael’s—but he never once questions Ahab outright, never once judges Queequeg negatively after their first meeting, and appears to all the while be relatively invested in the hunt for Moby Dick. Ishmael seems something of a Job-like determinist in this respect; by never “charging” anyone with “wrongdoing,” Ishmael displays a kind of casual acquiescence that suggests a faith in the events on and around the ship. Basically, Ishmael trusts in what’s to come. With this reading of Ishmael’s character, his reasons for including an epilogue seem clear: Ishmael wants to show how right he was.
To give a crude summary of the relevant bits of Job I: Job, whose children are feasting at the house of his oldest son, learns from four messengers that various acts of man and God have resulted in the death or destruction of all land, animals, and people at the son’s home. Job’s reaction is somewhat surprising:
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:
‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised.’
Through all the pain inflicted by such a traumatic event, Job retains his faith in God, a faith for which Job will remain in God’s favor. Similarly, Ishmael floats confidently along and through a whirlpool (the experience of which Ishmael likens to the story of Ixion, a man also tortured by a god), only to be saved miraculously by Queequeg’s coffin, which had (not coincidentally) been the ship’s life buoy. Things worked out exactly as they were supposed to in Ishmael’s eyes, and he even describes the event as organized by the Fates. As the only man on the ship with true faith in the consequences of his actions and the actions of others, Ishmael survives the ordeal as was destined to happen. The epilogue, then, might seem to say, “I told you so.”
And only I am escaped alone to tell thee.
Ishmael introduces his epilogue with this quote from Job I. In response, I’d like to share another quote from the same chapter:
In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
As a reader, my impression of Ishmael was that he is as balanced a narrator as any. Sure, he constantly interjects with all sorts of cetological and philosophical musings and odd stylistic choices—and one might even say these are specifically Melville’s doing, and not Ishmael’s—but he never once questions Ahab outright, never once judges Queequeg negatively after their first meeting, and appears to all the while be relatively invested in the hunt for Moby Dick. Ishmael seems something of a Job-like determinist in this respect; by never “charging” anyone with “wrongdoing,” Ishmael displays a kind of casual acquiescence that suggests a faith in the events on and around the ship. Basically, Ishmael trusts in what’s to come. With this reading of Ishmael’s character, his reasons for including an epilogue seem clear: Ishmael wants to show how right he was.
To give a crude summary of the relevant bits of Job I: Job, whose children are feasting at the house of the oldest son, learns from four messengers that various acts of man and God have resulted in the death or destruction of the land, animals, and children at the son’s home.
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