Moby Dick

In ‘The Blacksmith’, Ishmael expands upon his understanding of the sea as an escape from the troubles of life.  When death seems the only possible place left to go, Perth (like Ishmael) finds the sea.  Similar to the opening paragraph of the novel in which he discusses his own reasons for going to sea, in this chapter, Ishmael gives us Perth’s reasons, based on his “wretched” life on land.   Prior to boarding the Pequod, Perth was “robbed” of his happy life, owing in large part to alcoholism.  He lost his family and his home, and “staggered off a vagabond in crape” (Melville 468).  Though his life was seemingly lost, he was not able to commit suicide—the blank slate of the sea beckoned him.  It was a submittal to a different kind of death, “a life which, to [his] now equally abhorred and abhorring, landed world, [was] more oblivious than death” (468).

The sea attracted Ishmael for similar reasons; the oblivion of the sea provided him grounds for deep thought and reflection.  But the seas barrenness also brings man a simplicity to his life, which can pervade even his mind.  Without the many complexities of life on land, a man (such as Perth) can be stripped down to his barest form.

Silent, slow, and solemn; bowing over still further his chronically broken back, he toiled away, as if toil were life itself, and the heavy beating of his hammer the heavy beating of his heart” (466)

In embodying the hammer, Perth truly left his “landed world” behind.  His broken heart brought him to sea, and then turned into a tool.  The sea didn’t restore his life, or his heart, instead it simplified it so much that it became wholly unnecessary for him to be anything more than his work.  He’s entered into a transitory state—he’s ceased living, but because he’s not dead either, he can only do those most basic functions, biding what time the sea chooses to give him.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008.

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