Moby Dick

This post does not really fit under “Characters and Characterization,” yet it relates to an earlier post I made in that section.  However, I think it relates more to the narrator, so I will classify it as such.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Ishmael is somewhat invisible as a character.  However, throughout the book, especially in later chapters, the reader gets glimpses of him.  One thing I’ve noted is his opinions on the work he has undertaken; this novel.  He seems to think rather highly of it, and see it as some sort of noble work. In chapter 104, The Fossil Whale, Ishmael states

For in the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with their outstretching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs.  Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme!  We expand to its bulk.  To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.

In saying this, Ishmael connects this work to large themes of the universe.  He seems to be claiming that this book is mighty, as it deals with such a mighty theme.  More than that, it is so important as to weaken him, as he struggles with the meaning of the universe.  This fits in with what we discussed in the first class, how some people hate this book, but some think it holds all the answers to life.  Ishmael appears to be in the latter camp.

Of course, this begs the ever present question:  how separate are Ishmael and Melville?  Does Melville see his work this way?  I would argue yes, as he constantly inserts massive life morals and questions into the work.  To him, it is not just a book about a whale.  Did this make him more upset when  the critics slammed this work, or shelved it under “cetology?”  Or did he laugh at their folly, knowing the deep truths were there, and they just couldn’t see?

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