Feb 26 2010
Faith
“Faith, sir, I’ve –”
“Faith? What’s that?”
“Why faith, sir, it’s only a sort of exclamation-like–that’s all, sir.”
(Melville, 467)
In chapter 127, “The Deck,” the carpenter is working on caulking the new life buoy. While he and Ahab are talking, the carpenter starts answering Ahab’s question with “faith,” and Ahab reacts by picking apart the carpenter’s words. Then the carpenter tries to backpedal by saying that it was simply a meaningless expression. I feel that Melville didn’t include this passage just to have an amusing joke about language. All of the characters, especially Ahab, have had crises of faith, and this moment briefly highlights their struggles.
For many of the sailors, Starbuck in particular, Christian faith is a simple, natural thing. Even the non-Christian sailors had faith: the most prominent is Queequeg with his little black god. And if they had not had any kind of faith before seeing Moby Dick, by the second day of the chase they have faith in “Ahab, their one lord” (492) — “the hand of Fate had snatched all their souls” and they faithfully follow orders. (491)
For Ahab, his faith has been redirected several times. He probably started out as a devout Christian, but then he changed focus to Moby Dick and to fate. By the second day he proclaims, “I am the Fates’ lieutenant; I act under orders.” (497) He relinquishes all authority and control of his actions, simply bowing to what he calls “the Fates.”
The only character who does not consistently have faith in something is Ishmael. He starts on land as a Christian, but after his meeting with Queequeg and his experiences on the Pequod, he beings to question his beliefs about religion, race, and gender. By the end of the novel, I think Ishmael is as confused about “the truth” as the reader is.
The only character who has no faith is the character who survives. I think that besides needing a plausible way for Ishmael to be able to tell this story, Melville wants to show that blind faith is a bad guide. Ahab has blind faith in fate, and that ends up killing almost everyone on the ship. But the crew also has blind faith in (or at least are blind followers of) Ahab. A mutiny would have saved their lives, even if it had meant committing murder; but the crew just follows orders. Ishmael is able to save himself because he does not have faith in anyone but himself.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1988, reissued 2008. Print.
One Response to “Faith”
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I like your reading of the role of faith in determining the destiny/fate of the crew members. It is interesting to identify the different levels of faith portrayed in the different crew members of the Pequod. Take Starbuck for example, he is very pious and religion seems to play an important role in his life, we often see instances where his faith is trying to guide him against the direction of Ahab’s madness. However, Ahab’s faith in fate ultimately overrides the religious faith of all other crew members and, because he is the captain, though a mad captain, he has the power to determine the fate of the voyage. In looking at Ishmael, I think part of the reason he seems not to have a strong sense of faith is because he is a bystander. I wonder if the reason he has lost faith is because he is the only survivor of the Pequod, and as mentioned in class the other day, he is writing the story after surviving and has therefore lost all faith. Ishmael’s role as the ‘all knowing’ narrator has possibly removed him from being subjected to the misleading powers of faith.