Moby Dick

My topic was “Characters and Characterization,” but when Professor Friedman said that we could branch out in our posting topics, I was very excited because I could write about the critical issue of the ship-mates’ will versus necessity in obedience to kill Moby Dick. This problem of will starts as soon as it begins. In the Quarter-Deck scene, after Ahab has “roused the troops,” calls for buy-in:

“Disdain the task [of killling Moby Dick]? What, when the great Pope washes the feet of beggars, using his tiara for an ewer? Oh, my sweet cardinals! your own condescension, that shall bend ye to it. I do not order ye; ye will it. Cut your seizings and draw the poles, ye harpooners!”(159)

That is, Ahab wants – or requires – his crew to hate the white whale, and have that be their motive in joining him on his quest. If Ahab truly just wants his crew to share his hate, it would be a sensical thing. In any group, the leader wants total commitment, total shared purpose. For instance, on a basketball team, much can be accomplished if everyone on the team understands the goals, and shares the will to do whatever each person can to achieve those goals. If their coach requires the team to get up at five in the morning for early morning cardio, the members go because they want to go, independent of their requirement to go, because they think it will help the team be the best it can be. The crew members on the Pequod don’t explicitly make any of these difficult sacrifices that basketball players might, besides the notable overarching likely sacrifice of their lives, but they do know the goal. It  seems, too, at first like there is emotional commitment, at least in their coach’s, Ahab’s, eyes. But unlike a good coach, or any good team leader, Ahab does not ask, ultimately, whether the crew members of the Pequod actually buy-in to his purpose. Indeed, right after he clamors, “ye will it,” instead of waiting for a response of confirmation, Ahab commands the harpooners. Their will is not known. But things get even hairier the very next line:

“Silently obeying the order, the three harpooners now stood with the detached iron part of their harpoons, some three feet long, held, barbs up, before him.” (159)

They obey the order. That word in itself must contradict what Ahab wants of his men. But moreover, they do it “silently,” denoting a grudging necessity to follow command, not stemming in any part from their will. Again, five a.m. workouts are no fun, but the team members give some indication that they want to do it. And though they are the harpooners alone, it is no stretch to see their silent obedience extending to the whole crew. Starbuck, in particular, is often mentioned silently carrying out Ahab’s commands, nearly always in opposition to what Starbuck, himself, wants.

It is unreasonable, too, given the Pequod crew members, for Ahab to expect them to mimic his will, especially with the passion and philosophy that necessarily accompanies it. More than just Starbuck flat-out disagreeing with Ahab on his most important issue, Flask and Stubb do not, cannot, hate the white whale alone in the way that he plagues Ahab. In this way, it seems clear to me that Ahab’s mission was doomed, even from the onset. Ishmael mentions that the crew was the best possible, and that may be true. They don’t mutiny, after all, and the mission is carried out to the last, no small feat. I don’t know if whether everyone had bought in to Ahab’s purpose that anything would have changed, but this fragmentation, this imperfection of the crew to achieve a shared goal, predetermined their failure.

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