Mar 05 2010
The “true” Moby Dick?
In the eighty-sixth chapter of Herman Mellville’s Moby Dick, after describing the sperm whale’s tail, Ishmael states that he still has an “inability to express it” (Melville, 366) and that even after dissecting a whale, he “know[s the whale] not, and never will” (Melville, 367). There is a similar instance in the 103rd chapter of the novel, entitled “Measurement of the Whale’s Skeleton.” For the most part, this chapter is a fairly dry and very detailed description of the whale’s skeleton. When Ishmael is examining a skeleton, he suddenly breaks away from his observations and thinks
“How vain and foolish, then, thought I, for timid untraveled man to try to comprehend aright this wondrous whale, by merely poring over his dead attenuated skeleton, stretched in this peaceful wood. No. Only in the heart of the quickest perils; only within the eddyings of his angry flukes; only on the profound unbounded sea, can the fully invested whale be truly and livingly found out” (Melville, 438).
As suddenly as this mental soliloque began, it ends and moves back to the description of the skeleton in a manner so abrupt that it is almost comical. The added factor in this thought – that the “true” whale can be discovered only in a perilous fight – is very likely an allusion to the final hunt of Moby Dick that will finish the novel. Therefore, it would be interesting to examine the first concrete sighting of Moby Dick to attempt to determine if there is an instance in which this particular whale’s true nature is revealed.
One possible revelation of the true Moby Dick is the shockingly calm and peaceful first description of him: “A gentle joyousness – a mighty mildness of repose in swiftness, invested the gliding whale” (Melville, 525). While this moment does not seem perilous, the danger of hunting Moby Dick has been well forewarned and is not doubted. The fact that the word “invested” is used to refer to the whale in both instances is especially indicative of a correlation. The descriptions of Moby Dick, for the most part, become increasingly more fearsome as this tragic climax in the novel progresses.
One Response to “The “true” Moby Dick?”
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I actually noticed Ishmael’s “inability to express himself” as well when I was reading over The Tail again. Thinking of the epilogue, and how little Ishmael says in it about what happens, I am reminded of that phrase, and I wonder if the dryness in the epilogue results partly from exactly that. I guess it’s just another way that Melville has planted clues throughout the book that come together in the ending and epilogue.