Moby Dick

What is the significance of Melville’s changing of the narrator’s voice after the Peqoud sets sail? To be sure, Ishmael is a major part of the opening chapters of the novel, so why do we suddenly cease to hear his voice for such a long time? It can not be denied that Ishmael has not disappeared completely, as sections such as the few chapters on Cetology seem to carry on the spirit of Ishmael’s “Whale Mania” that is found in the introductory sections of the book, and these moments are clearly examples of Ishmael’s voice. But we soon encounter scenes in the novel where Melville presents the action of his characters through the use of stage direction. It can not be said that this is done because Ishmael is not present at the scene and lacks opinion on the matter because he is not an omniscient narrator, nor can it be said that an omniscient narrator wouldn’t have made sense to add for the purpose of presenting these scenes to the reader, as at times in the later sections of the novel it does seem that Melville has suddenly given us a third-party omniscient onlooker to describe the action that is certainly not Ishmael. I find it hard to believe that the entire idea of Ishmael was nothing more than one of the many tangents Melville takes building off of his “riff” that is Moby Dick. There would have been no reason for Ishmael to take such a prominent role for such a long time before setting out to sea were this the case. In addition I find it very unlikely that the world would have latched onto the line “Call me Ishmael” were Ishmael eventually made to be irrelevant. Instead I feel that Ishmael acts as Melville’s avatar in the novel and the sections right after taking sail where we seem to loose touch with Ishmael act to give us information about a scene in a way that Ishmael could not have at this early point in the trip. Ishmael is very good at commenting in a philosophical way on things that happen as part of the daily routine on a whaling vessel, but I get the impression that he is not the best person to describe direct human interaction. I learn much more about how Ishmael feels about people when I hear him talk about a piece of rope then when I hear him speak directly about Ahab. Certainly by the end of the novel the reader has learned enough about Ishmael’s feelings on humanity’s struggle with the concept of God that one can come to an educated conclusion about how Ishmael would have responded in any scene when he is not present. It seems that Melville wanted Ishmael to remain a slightly solitary individual with very specific ideas, through whom he could speak, but Melville did his best to keep him out of the world of commenting on interactions between parties that did not include him. This also serves a purpose in that because these scenes occur so soon after setting sail the reader is able to picture Ishmael cherishing the fact that he is away from land and perhaps away from his depression so tangibly that Ishmael doesn’t go all philosophical on us for a few “days”. Regardless, I believe there is true purpose for the narrative voice in Ishmael’s disappearance for a fairly large part of the novel, and that this purpose says nothing about his absence being the norm, but instead the disappearance of Ishmael is one of Melville’s “riffs” in order to convey a point about humanity that is not best suited to Ishmael despite the fact that in most situations Ishmael is the best observer possible.

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