Moby Dick

The thirty-second chapter of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is entitled, “Cetology.” While this chapter can appear to be a somewhat dry breakdown and description of whale phylogeny, the manner in which Ishmael discusses the cetacean order is revealing of him as a character, and therefore of Herman Melville as a designer and director of this character.

Towards the beginning of the chapter, Melville lists and quotes several people who have studied and/or written about whales. The first person he quotes, and several of the people that he lists, are “Captain[s]” (125-126). Melville also states that of the “whale authors” listed, only “one of them was a real professional harpooneer and whaleman” (126). This indicates that he thinks of whalers as having the most authority on the subject of cetology, signifying and emphasizing that he holds whaling in very high regard.

This is further supported by the selection of whales that Melville chooses to include in his description, and how he makes this choice. For example, he states that the sperm whale is the largest of all whales (129), when it is now well known that the blue whale is the largest. After the description of the members of the cetacean order, Melville states that he has listed “the Leviathans of note” (137). He proceeds to give another brief list, among which the blue whale is included, and he says that if any member of this less-detailed list of whales “be caught and marked, then he can readily be incorporated into this System” (137). This suggests that he believes that only whales which have been hunted are important.

The choice to classify the sperm whale as “the largest inhabitant of the globe; the most formidable of all whales to encounter” (Melville, 129), in combination with the knowledge that the crew depicted in the book is on a whaling voyage to hunt the sperm whale, serves to impress the readers and to add a level of daring or excitement to the novel.

Prior to listing and classifying species of whales, there is a discussion as to whether the whale is a fish or not (Melville, 127-128). In the present day, of course, it is widely excepted that the whale is not a fish, but a mammal. Melville states that Linnaeus classifies whales as separate from fish, and includes his reasons for doing so. This passage in the chapter has a slight ironic tone – it seems as if Melville could be supported Linnaeus’s reasoning, but allows Ishmael to directly declare that he takes “the good old fashioned ground that the whale is a fish, and [he] call[s] upon holy Jonah to back” him (Melville, 128). This draws a creationism versus evolution, biology versus God and the bible, etc discussion into the novel.

The chapter “Cetology” is ironic in itself. It is about the science of whales, yet Ishmael rejects scientific reasoning, embraces the reasoning of the bible, and uses whalers as his scientists.

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