Moby Dick

Having gotten to know Ahab thus far as the irreligious, vengeance-driven captain of the Pequod, it is interesting how quickly God comes up when Ahab’s pious first mate, Starbuck, directly questions the captain’s actions.  When an oil leak forms on the ship, a problem normally corrected by “upping the Burtons,” Ahab indifferently refuses to follow the regulatory procedures.  He says the only important goal of the trip is the capture of Moby Dick, and that the oil means nothing to him regardless of the owners’ expectations.

Ahab is infuriated with Starbuck’s dissension: “‘Devils! Dost thou then so much as dare to critically think of me? – On deck!’” And later, “‘There is one God that is Lord over the earth, and one Captain that is lord over the Pequod’” (494).

Ahab does not often mention Devils or God in any context.  Of course, in this situation, he uses religious rhetoric to paint himself as God, verbally smiting Starbuck for even thinking critically of his methods.  Not exactly a revelation of Ahab’s oft-hidden piety.  But what does this say about Ahab’s perception of God?  If he is serious about his belief that the almighty is not to be questioned, he is treading on thin ice in his quest to kill Moby Dick.  We have seen throughout the text ways in which God could be represented in the traditional sense, by the whale Moby Dick itself, or by the vast power and mysteriousness of nature and the ocean.  In any of these cases, Ahab is doing much more than just “thinking critically” about or against God’s will with his journey.  He is directly challenging the almighty.

Interestingly enough, Ahab eventually relents to Starbuck’s courageous request and orders the upping of the Burtons.  Ishmael wonders if it may have been a “flash of honesty” that caused Ahab’s uncharacteristically rational action.  Does this passage show a sense of deference to a higher being by Ahab?  A shred of a conscience, or honesty, or morality?  Does Ahab reference God to appeal to Starbuck, or is his mind often consumed by religion?  It appears as if all these questions, along with the resolution to a growing rivalry between Starbuck and Ahab, will be further hashed out as the novel continues.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1991.

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