Feb 18 2010
Fate and Portents
Almost all the characters on the Pequod absolve themselves of responsibility and allay their melancholia by attributing actions and events to Providence or fated destiny. Melville’s Calvinistic pre-determinism is at work here, but I argue that he ultimately rejects it in the case of Ahab. In the chapters leading up to the final chase of Moby Dick, Starbuck’s dire warnings against continuation of the voyage are a counter to Ahab’s claims of lack of agency.
Here are some phrases and sentences that show the overwhelming obsession with fate in the last quarter of the novel.
‘Instantly the yards were squared, to the lively song of “Ho! The fair wind! Oh-he-yo, cheerly, men!” the crew singing for joy, that so promising an event should so soon have falsified the evil portents preceding it.’ 492
‘…the fated Pequod’ 498
‘…they were not grieved at this event, at least as a portent; for they regarded it, not as a foreshadowing of evil in the future, but as the fulfillment of an evil already presaged. ‘ 502
‘But with his gaze fixed upon the dim and distant horizon, Ahab seemed not to mark this wild bird; nor, indeed, would any one else have marked it much, it being no uncommon circumstance; only now almost the least heedful eye seemed to see some sort of cunning meaning in almost every sight.’ 516
‘Ha! Yonder! Look yonder, men!’ cried a foreboding voice in the wake.’ 518
‘By heaven, man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder, windlass, and Fate is the handspike.’ 522
As Ahab’s monomania degenerates into raving incoherence, he increasingly blames his state on Fate. In a sense, this voyage was meant to occur in the scheme of things. Starbuck desperately cautions against Ahab’s proposals, but to no avail. Perhaps it was an attempt to get through Ahab’s madness to the reasoning part of his mind, with the lesson that Ahab had indeed chosen this path and could depart from it if he so wanted.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Signet Classic. 1998
One Response to “Fate and Portents”
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It is interesting that for all the characters who might blame their state on fate, it is Ahab, who was earlier characterized as a man nominally Christian but hardly pious. Ahab’s destined encounter with Moby Dick could be seen through countless religious and biblical contexts – man vs. God, David vs. Goliath, and so on. Perhaps Ahab is constantly preoccupied with his fate, but not in the Calvinist sense like the other characters, and therefore he does not see the impending doom of his voyage that a religious reading of “fate” would evoke. We have already seen that he considers himself a God-like character on the Pequod. It seems to me that only an impious man would be so eager to try to kill the Godly figure of the vast ocean. (And perhaps, given this reading of Ahab’s intentions and piety, it only makes sense that all the other characters would reference the predestined fate of the Pequod – it is really out of their hands.)