Moby Dick

“…the inscrutable Parsee’s glance awed his [Ahab’s eyes]; or somehow, at least, in some wild way, at times affected it. Such an added, gliding strangeness began to invest the thin Fedallah now; such ceaseless shudderings shook him; that the men looked dubious at him; half uncertain, as it seemed, whether indeed he were a mortal substance, or else a tremulous shadow cast upon the deck by some unseen being’s body. And that shadow was always hovering there. For not by night, even, had Fedallah ever certainly been known to slumber…”

Much can be made of the above quotation for it has much thought inspiring substance packed into a short space. To begin, the first line lays bare the odd relationship between Ahab and his secret harpooner. A relationship where the power structure is not what it ought. No matter the imagined strength of the Fedallah’s magic, Ahab is still the captain of the Pequod, but by all accounts seems himself captained by the Parsi’s convulsions and murmured prophecies. Further, Ahab is a New England Quaker who by tradition has no business consorting with the likes of a Parsi. But Ahab is no ordinary man, and needless to say, by practice at least, no longer a Quaker.

That first line, nay the second word, makes clear that Fedallah is no simple figure. ““Inscrutable”” to the crew, but also to the reader. This post is indeed a testament to the debate that surrounds the character’s character; and by character I of course mean moral fiber. Decades gone by and still no one is sure whether he was penned as good or evil. (My take is that he was penned as ambiguous; there to spark and keep the interest of the masses-and provide fodder for discussions such as this.)

Finally, the last line. At first glance, this seems a indication of some spiritual possession or sorcery. Indeed in may be so. However, there could well be other explanations. In previous posts I have attempted to rationalize some of the characters’ primary attributes. Fedallah does not sleep. This can certainly be interpreted in a mystical manner, and if one is reading the novel in that light, so be it. But if one reads the novel as a comenntary on the whaling industry/culture (Stubb and Flask: Alcoholic and pothead), Fedallah’s lack of sleep could well be read as stress induced insomnia; brought on by prolonged separation from his native culture/immersion into an alien one. Or possible still, brought on by the constant paranoia born of his perceived (prophesied) impending meeting with/death by the white whale. That explanation also serves to rationalize the prophesies as the delusions of a man stressed to the breaking point by a career of danger in a foreign culture, topped by a clandestine voyage of revenge.

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