Mar 05 2010
Is Ahab defying his fate or submitting to it?
We talked a lot in class about Chapter 132, The Symphony, and whether Ahab’s death occurred as a sort of punishment for his refusal to give up on killing Moby Dick, his defiance of defeat. When I read The Symphony I felt that, rather than defying his destiny, Ahab was actually submitting to it in his search for Moby Dick.
We know that Melville was Calvinist, looking for signs of his pre-ordained fate. After Ahab gives his speech questioning his choice to spend his life whaling, and Starbuck encourages him to go back to Nantucket, Melville writes:
“But Ahab’s glance was averted; like a blighted fruit tree he shook, and cast his last cindered apple to the soil. ‘What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozzening, hidden lord and master, and remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, and 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 is as an errand-boy in heaven…” (521).
While Ahab’s literal death occurs in the later chapters, when he is dragged down by the line, his figurative one seems to occur at the very moment when he “cast his last cindered apple to the soil.” His last cindered apple falls from the tree, leaving nothing behind, similar to the way that the speech he just gave Starbuck hinting that he wishes to give up the hunt on Moby Dick is his last attempt to avoid his fate. The speech was his last defense, and after he has given it, Ahab resigns himself to his fate: to fight Moby Dick and die. Perhaps the fact that Melville describes Ahab’s last apple as “cindered” suggests that Ahab was pre-ordained to go to Hell.
If Ahab’s fate was pre-ordained, can we blame him everything tragic that happens in this book, or do we just have to accept it as everybody’s fate, meant to happen. Is Ahab responsible for the “murders” of all those people on the ship who died because he wouldn’t give up hunting Moby Dick? If he was compelled, by a force bigger than himself, does that still make him responsible for the consequences of his actions? I think these are some questions Melville was exploring when he created Ahab.
One Response to “Is Ahab defying his fate or submitting to it?”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I like that you question if Ahab can really be seen as responsible for the events that occur throughout the novel. You also make an interesting point– iif Melville wanted to include Calvinist ideas in “Moby Dick,” it seems that Ahab’s total submission to destroying Moby Dick, no matter how ludicrous the mission was, was not his desire completely. Ahab had already lamented that he was a fool for leaving behind a life on land to pursue whaling for most of his existence, and yet he cannot give up his mission to destroy the whale. This could be Calvinism and pre-destination at work, but it could also be Ahab’s stubbornness and hubris, tragic flaws that caused the downfalls of many powerful men (example: Oedipus Rex).