Moby Dick

In the assigned reading, Ishmael and the narrator slowly zoom in on the whale. The reader enjoys a holistic picture to begin. Chapter 32 is all about Cetology, which takes a detached, scientific and impersonal view of the whale. Ishmael leaves his discussion of Cetology unfinished: “even as the great Cathedral of Cologne was left, with the crane still standing upon the top of the uncompleted tower.” (128) He gives some excuse about great things being left unfinished such as architectural masterpieces. This rang somewhat sarcastic to me though, as his primitive treatment of whale taxonomy (despite the existence of the Linnaean system) could hardly be compared to the likes of the Sagrada Familia.

In chapters 55 and 56, Ishmael zooms in from the scientific to a more feelings-oriented perspective on whale understanding. He discusses first the bad pictures of whales and then “of the less erroneous pictures of whales, and the true pictures of whaling scenes.” (241) Chapter 57 is all about “whales in paint; in teeth; in wood; in sheet iron; in stone; in mountains; in stars.” (244)

In his scientific and philosophical study of the whale, Ishmael is not content with visual descriptions alone. Chapter 65 is dedicated to “the whale as a dish.” (269)

Just a few pages later, Ishmael ponders “what and where is the skin of the whale?” (274) In chapter 68, the crew is cutting open a whale and Ishmael takes to intense observation. He looks at the “infinitely thin, isinglass substance, which, I admit, invests the entire body of the whale,” (275) and calls this “the skin of the skin,” referring to the blubber as the primary layer of skin. This could potentially be a metaphor for the fact that despite people (such as sailors on the Pequod) claiming and appearing to have thick skin, they all have a sensitive layer (skin of the skin), which may be more exposed than they think.

Zooming in further, Ishmael observes the sperm whale’s head in chapter 74 and the head of a right whale in 75. This is where the subtle anthropomorphism becomes far more overt. About the sperm whale, Ishmael makes comments like, “there is more character in the Sperm Whale’s head,” (295) and “pepper and salt color of his head at the summit, giving token of advanced age and large experience.” (295) He even asks, after pondering the distance between the sperm whale’s eyes, “is his brain so much more comprehensive, combining, and subtle than man’s, that he can at the same moment of time attentively examine two distinct prospects, one on one side of him, and the other in an exactly opposite direction?” (297) His musings become even more philosophical and anthropomorphic by the end of chapter 75. For instance:

“Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale’s there? It is the same he died with, only some of the longer wrinkles in the forehead seem now faded away. I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity, born of a speculative indifference as to death. But mark the other head’s expression. See that amazing lower lip, pressed by accident against the vessel’s side, so as firmly to embrace the jaw. Does not this whole head seem to speak of an enormous practical resolution in facing death? This Right Whale I take to have been a Stoic; the Sperm Whale, a Platonian, who might have taken up Spinoza in his latter years.” (301)

As Ishmael and the narrator move from the scientific to the artistic and culinary and eventually consider the body and head of the whale, the commentary becomes increasingly human-related and philosophical. The flow from one of these chapters mentioned above to the next feels punctuated and dramatic. One possible interpretation is that the sailors and man itself is not so different from what it hunts. This could either be a means to diminish the significance of man or to elevate the status of whales, which given Melville’s obsessions and the respect that most of the sailors have for nature and Moby Dick, seems the more likely alternative.

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

Above is a non-exhaustive list of possible explanations for Ishmael/Melville’s description of Fedallah and his Oriental homeland in Chapter 50, though we know that Fedallah’s true homeland, Persia, is actually a separate entity from East Asia altogether! The description is markedly negative:

“He was such a creature as civilized, domestic people in the temperate zone only see in their dreams, and that but dimly; but the like of whom now and then glide among the unchanging Asiatic communities, especially the Oriental isles to the east of the continent— those insulated, immemorial, unalterable countries, which even in these modern days still preserve much of the ghostly aboriginalness of earth’s primal generations, when the memory of the first man was a distinct recollection, and all men his descendants, unknowing whence he came, eyed each other as real phantoms, and asked of the sun and the moon why they were created and to what end; when though, according to Genesis, the angels indeed consorted with the daughters of men, the devils also, add the uncanonical Rabbis, indulged in mundane amours.”, [Herman Melville, Moby Dick]

To begin with, it is unlikely that Ishmael should hold a grudge against someone he had (1) only just met, (2) had never done him any harm, and (3) is a fellow whaler who, for all of his mysteriousness, is still working toward the same goal at himself. Therefore, Ishmael’s unflattering tale of origin is not due to a bias against Fedallah’s character.

In that case, could Ishmael’s assertion of primitiveness stem from an ignorance of East Asian culture and geography? Perhaps to a certain degree. However, the “insulated…unalterable countries” Ishmael mentions had not yet begun to industrialize at this time. Only after the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s did Japan begin to develop industry and to shift away from Bushido and agrarianism. Many other “Oriental isles”, such as Papua New Guinea, many Polynesian islands, and parts of the Philippines and Indonesia, remain largely culturally and technologically isolated even to this day. Combined with the fact that Melville himself had firsthand experience with some of these places lead one to conclude that the strange description of Asia is not due to ignorance.

At the same time, Melville is definitely taking poetic license here. It is preposterous to claim that, merely by *looking* at Fedallah, one can see the origins of humanity. This dramatic, and ostensibly bigoted, verbiage seems to be the strongest incentive for Ishmael’s soliloquy. In order to evoke how very different the islanders’ culture is, Melville chose to not only separate them spatially from the reader, but temporally as well.

I’d also like to mention the extreme irony of the narrator’s charge that Fedallah came from an ignorant place where man was “unknowing whence he came”, even though the Genesis-citing speaker was probably ignorant of his own origins, as Darwin’s Origin of Species wouldn’t be published for another eight years.

Ishmael makes it clear in the beginning of the novel that he is suffering from a sense of melancholy that is leading him towards thoughts involving a gun, whether this is a statement of suicidal or homicidal intent is up for debate, but what is certain is that Ishmael is experiencing deep despair. He hopes to remedy his feelings of sadness by giving himself fully to back breaking work upon a whaling vessel. This is not an uncommon means of dealing with internal struggle. I cannot help but be reminded of Levin from Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” when the issue of escaping internal conflict through labor is discussed. I feel that Ishmael’s attempt to escape melancholy through means of labor is in contrast to Levin even though their actions are outwardly similar.

When looking to Ishmael’s statements in Chapter 35 “The Mast Head” we see that Ishmael is not able to escape from his internal demons as he spends all of the time he has to himself in deep contemplation. Levin feels deep despair and attempts to deal with his feelings by retreating to the countryside and working along with his serfs. Once Levin is out in nature he is able to focus all of his energy on mowing grass and he feels a great weight lifted from his shoulders because he finds a simple purity in manual labor that lets him escape the inner turmoil he cannot deal with otherwise. Ishmael responds to despair in a similar way, but it is inwardly very different. Ishmael goes on a whaling ship to partake in physical labor, but he does so in hopes that he can hand over his will and actions to the captain of the ship, losing himself of the responsibility he has over his life. As a result his mind feels no weight lifted from it. Instead when he has long periods of time to himself he finds the same melancholy that had plagued him on land. This is because Ishmael seeks a different kind of freedom in labor, and this is freedom from determining what he is to do with his physical self. The whaling vessel does nothing to lift stress from his mind. Ishmael lives in a society where there is a heavy feeling of fate that permeates all he does. In giving his body over to an outside source he likely hopes he can trick himself into feeling like he is going through the actions that are determined for him without needing to waste his mental energies on deciding what those actions should be. As a result Ishmael’s method of escaping his despair is one that forces him to dwell in his sadness and perhaps is a way for him to try to sort everything out from within.

We therefore see that Levin and Ishmael deal with stress differently because of their cultures. Levin hopes to use labor to focus his mind on something that is physically draining but not stressful, and Ishmael hopes to use labor to save his mind for thinking about the things that make him sad and to try to deal with these things since his mind is not needed for menial tasks. Ishmael feels that he must act this way because as far as he is concerned he has a fate looming over him of which he cannot predict, and it is this fate that he hopes to understand more about through inward meditation. For Ishmael this meditation can only be achieved with work.

For all the talk of Melville’s progressive (or not so progressive) stance on race, few have questioned the category of race itself. Melville and his narrator, Ishmael, have varying responses to the “cannibals” at different points in the text. Their responses range from outright terror—“had not the stranger stood between me and the door, I would have bolted out of it quicker than I ever bolted a dinner (Melville 21)”—to patronizing, “these savages have an innate sense of delicacy, say what you will; it is marvelous how essentially polite they are (Melville 27),” almost as if Ishmael were talking about a small child who had learned to say “please” and “thank you.” On either end of the spectrum of responses, Queequeg is clearly not the same as Ishmael, and his racial otherness characterizes his difference.
At one point in the text, Melville attempts to moralize on race relations for his audience, via Ishmael’s realization that “ignorance is the parent of fear (21).” Melville’s superficial attempts at moralizing on peace and serenity between races belies his work on the project of reaffirming both whiteness and the category of race itself. Race, on this liberal arts campus, is commonly discussed as a construct, and Melville’s text illustrates how individuals build race as a category, normalizing whiteness and casting those with different skin colors as a different race.
Ishmael almost constantly reaffirms whiteness as the default, in his first meeting with Queequeg, assuming that he is simply a tan white man who had traveled to New Zealand and received their tribal tattoos. He didn’t realize that Queequeg was not a white man until he saw him practicing his worship, exposed his hair knot, the extensive full-body tattoo covering Queequeg’s “purple” skin. Melville never speaks openly of “race,” but by spending excessive time describing and exoticizing Queequeg, Melville reaffirms whiteness as the default (and therefore unworthy of long descriptions). Setting whiteness as the default sets up racial relations to consider “whites” as superior to others, and whiteness has become a constant project of keeping itself in the default position by subjugating and dominating other “races.”
The project of constructing race and keeping whiteness as the default relies on the sorts of markers Ishmael uses to mark Queequeg as a “savage.” These racially-coded features would have resonated with Melville’s audience, clearly delineating Queequeg as “other,” without ever outright saying that he is of a different race. Seemingly arbitrary markers such as these are the code by which we read and interpret race, and the invisibility of these markers allow the project of whiteness to become normalized and shielded from critical analysis.

The religious themes in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, appear quite often. Captain Ahab appears to be the religious analogue of the bringer of chaos and doom. Ishmael slowly manages to see the true nature of Captain Ahab. Ahab begins to spend less time in the cabin, feeling that he is not getting any work done. Captain Ahab is rarely seen and Elijah appears often to help Ishmael and Queequeg manage their goals for the day. Strangely enough though, Ishmael talks about how he values the whaling profession as a profitable career and how it satisfies kings and queens, due to the value of whale oil.

Interestingly enough, Ishmael delves into cetology, as he converses about the various types of leviathans that exist. The leviathan exists in the Bible as a monstrous sea creature that is nigh invulnerable to all forms of physical attacks. The leviathan is also described as bringing chaos and doom to whoever sails on the sea. The White Whale in Moby Dick is delineated as being legendary, omnipresent, eternal and immortal. On another note, Ahab can be seen as the devil here, as he offers to give the crew a Spanish ounce of gold if they successfully locate the White Whale. I can see Ahab as the devil here because he represents the snake that entices Adam and Eve with the apple, that should bring them happiness and glee, but instead gives them only lots of trouble. Just like the devil dooms both Adam and Eve, Captain Ahab dooms his own crewmen and harpooners. In a similar manner, the crew of the ship will eventually have to deal with the monolithic White Whale. Furthermore, Gabriel thinks that Moby Dick is the incarnation of the Shaker God and one of the seamen hears a peculiar sound, which might in fact be God.

Anyone who has had minimal exposure to greek literature in their lifetime will be familiar with the term “Hubris”.  It is most typically referring to those Greek tragedies in which the main character, likable or not, is brought down by his own haughtiness, oftentimes by the gods themselves.  The most memorable characters involved in these sorts of stories would of course be Odysseus, Oedipus and Icarus, but many others were brought down alongside these men.  Greek historian Herodotus summarizes the idea of hubris in the following passage:

Seest thou how God with his lightning smites always the bigger animals, and will not suffer them to wax insolent, while those of a lesser bulk chafe him not? How likewise his bolts fall ever on the highest houses and the tallest trees? So plainly does He love to bring down everything that exalts itself. Thus ofttimes a mighty host is discomfited by a few men, when God in his jealousy sends fear or storm from heaven, and they perish in a way unworthy of them. For God allows no one to have high thoughts but Himself. (Wikipedia)

Now, anyone who has gotten up through chapter 36 in Moby Dick must surely see the parallels this statement has with our favorite captain, and as the novel progresses, Ahab only digs himself in deeper and deeper:  “Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me…. Who’s over me?” (Melville 178).  This does not bode well for the ship, as Starbuck realizes: “God keep me!-keep us all!” (179).  Although perhaps Melville did not write his story after the model of the greek tragedy, that doesn’t mean that he won’t rely on a similar storyline; for what story of hubris would be more relevant to Melville than that of Jonah?  As the bible states, “But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah” (Biblegateway Jonah 1:17).  So, there is a biblical predecessor to Moby Dick involving both a whale and a man that defies God… it seems that Starbuck was quite founded in his fears. 

Ahab’s hubris is brought on and enhanced by the  impenetrable greatness that Moby Dick possesses as a figure.  In his first unfortunate encounter with the whale, the discrepancy in the power of these two characters could not be more obvious:

His three boats stove around him, and the oars and men both whirling in the eddies; [Ahab], seizing the line-knife from his broken prow, had dashed at the whale… blindly seeking with a six inch blade to reach the fathom-deep life of the whale…. And then it was… Moby Dick had reaped away Ahab’s leg, as a mower a blade of grass in the field. (Melville 199)

Ahab attacks the whale with a pitiful 6-inch knife, crazily hoping to reach the beast’s “fathom-deep life”, and Moby Dick cleaves his leg “as a mover a blade of grass”-and all this after Ahab has experienced the disgraceful destruction of his fleet.  As a result of his loss to the whale, Ahab finds himself mentally altered:

[Ahab] at last came to identify with [Moby Dick], not only all his bodily woes, but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations…. All the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visible personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. (Melville 200)

And so manifests the “mask” that Ahab refers to (178), and the aporia we referred to in class; Ahab feels that he is kept from some greater truth due to the continued existence of this whale, and by finding this blockage “assailable,” he will most likely stop at nothing to rid himself of this elusive foe.

Although one might prefer to think that in his crazed delirium, perhaps Ahab could never lead his ship to this whale, there is further evidence of their intertwined rivalry in Ahab’s leg-for rather than wood or any other substance that he could have used to replace his missing limb, Ahab chooses whale ivory, intertwining in his very physical being the manifestation for what is to come. 

Works Cited:

“Hubris.” Wikipedia. Wed. 2 Feb. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris>

“Jonah 1.” BibleGateway. Web. 2 Feb. 2010. <http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jonah%201&version=NIV>

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Northwestern University Press, 1988. Reissued 2003. Print.

In the chapter, “The Specksynder,” (sorry for going back in the text, I just thought this was an interesting place to comment on Melville’s notion of work/slavery) Melville discusses a job lacking on the Pequod, which is that of the Specksynder. Considering the Specksynder’s role of splitting the leadership of the whaling vessel with the captain, it is not surprising that Melville left the position out of his novel. With a Specksynder around, someone would have been able to put Ahab’s dangerous aspirations at bay, being in control of the part of the ship that directly relates to Ahab’s goal of hunting and killing Moby Dick. Ahab embodies the absolute ruler of the ship in this respect further, as he has his own secret crew set aside for the killing of the great, white whale. Melville, makes readers aware of the potential Specksynder as a foil for how Ahab handles the whale-hunting portion of his crew, which is with the utmost control, as there is no better way to make something all yours than by making it your secret.
Melville’s description of the Specksynder also serves as a foil for Ahab himself. Ahab hides out below deck for the beginning of the voyage, separating himself from the crew as much as possible, and when he ascends he remains aloof, unless he is clearly exhibiting his power over the ship through a “team rallying” session in “The Quarter-Deck.” Melville writes of the Specksynder, on the other hand:

…therefore, the grand political maxim of the sea demands, that [the Specksynder] should nominally live apart from the men before the mast, and be in some way distinguished as their professional superior; though always, by them, familiarly regarded as their social equal.

Ahab’s behavior certainly does not conduce social equality with his crew on the Pequod. Also, in keeping with the metaphor of the Pequod as the nation from which it set sail, the absence of the Specksynder is very telling. Without this position, there is no real bridge between the absolute authority of the boat (the nation) and the crew (the people, or the slaves, as they are trapped on Ahab’s boat and thus slaves to his will). One could argue that the mates could serve such a purpose, but, alas, they remain under the absolute authority of the captain. Thus, (hopefully this is not too much of a stretch) such laws as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 are allowed to pass in America because there is no social arbiter, really, between the political authorities and those whom the laws most affect, i.e. the slaves, just as the crew cannot avoid Ahab’s dangerous mission now that they are on his craft. In Moby Dick, perhaps Melville tries to emphasize the political importance of the position of the Specksynder, as such is needed to keep the government from ruling over the lowliest of men without the latter’s best interests in mind.

Chapter thirty-two in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick deals exclusively with Ishmael’s own categorization system for whales.  Throughout this chapter, Ishmael tells the reader everything he has experienced or has heard of that would be useful in distinguishing whales from one another.  Yet, the most common piece of knowledge is that whales are largely a mystery.  Ishmael begins the chapter with quotations regarding this mysteriousness, this “ impenetrable veil covering our knowledge of the cetacea” (126).  Despite this grounding in mystery, Ishmael goes on to provide the reader with his own set of classifications for the whale.  These are based largely on size and then appearance.  Within these divisions, whales are discussed regarding their value to whalers, primarily the value of their oil.  However, he also comments on whales’ sociability:

The Fin-Back is not gregarious.  He seems a whale-hater, as some men are man-haters.  Very shy; always going solitary; unexpectedly rising to the surface in the remotest and most sullen waters; his straight and single lofty jet rising like a tall misanthropic spear upon a barren plain; gifted with such wondrous power and velocity in swimming, as to defy all present pursuit from man; this Leviathan seems to be the banished and unconquerable Cain of his race, bearing for his mark that style upon his back.

From there I drew a similarity from the way Ishmael discusses whale to the way in which he discusses men.  He also feels the need to categorize men based on their birthplace.  The three mates on the Pequod are all introduced with their origins as one of their chief characteristics.  Just as Ishmael judges whales based on the value of their oil, he seems to judge men based on their affinity with water.  The Lakeman, while being born far from the ocean, is still respected because the Great Lakes have given him similar experiences.  The Canallers are predisposed to betrayal due to their upbringing along the Erie Canal.

And yet in reality, this sort of stereotyping comes about because so much is unknown about individuals.  Ishmael is able to classify people based on his limited experience and on what he has heard from others, just as he classifies whales.  I found this to be yet another example of the science of whales being intertwined with Ishmael’s views on humanity.

In chapters 36 through 40, Melville inserts a Shakespearen mini-play into his novel using literary devices such as poetic rhythms & images, soliloquies, and stage direction that help to illustrate the dramatic and tragic elements of Moby Dick. Through the use of soliloquies, Melville also communicates to the reader (without relying on the narrator) the true feelings and reflections of Ahab, Starbuck, and Stubbs.

Much like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who is driven to madness by his obsession of exacting revenge on his uncle Claudius, Ahab, admittedly, has grown mad with his fixation on killing Moby Dick. In his soliloquy, Ahab proclaims,

What I’ve dared, I’ve willed; and what I’ve willed, I’ll do! They think me mad—Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and—Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer (Melville 183).

Ahab’s reflections on Moby Dick and his “demoniac” attitude demonstrate that Ahab’s quest for vengeance on the whale has completely consumed him, and, as he acknowledges, has driven him quite mad. Melville’s juxtaposition of Ahab’s madness and his acknowledgement of this madness is very curious. You might ask, ‘how crazy can a person be who is aware of their madness?’ As Ahab says, “that wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself!”, implying that Ahab can set aside his craziness for an instant, only to recognize it; apart from that self-awareness, this madness has consumed every other aspect of his life. This passage illustrates Ahab as a flawed protagonist because he is fully aware of his madness, but he is willing to put others at risk to achieve his goal of “dismember[ing] his dismemberer.”

Starbuck’s soliloquy also plays an important role in these chapters. The first mate comments to himself:

My soul is more than matched; she’s overmanned; and by a madman! Insufferable sting, that sanity should ground arms on such a field! But he drilled deep down, and blasted all my reason out of me! I think I see his impious end; but feel that I must help him to it (Melville 184).

Despite Starbuck’s recognition of Ahab as a “madmen”, he is unable to stand up and combat his captain; he even fells compelled to help Ahab with his mission, perhaps because he prophesizes that their quest for Moby Dick will lead Ahab to an “impious end.” With Starbuck’s soliloquy, Melville foreshadows a tragic end for Ahab and the rest of the Pequod.

         The cetological references, details, and discussions in the first twenty-one chapters of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick are somewhat limited. The whaling voyage that Ishmael is going to embark on has not yet set sail, and thus Ishmael has not come in contact with any live whales.

            Not surprisingly, Ishmael’s attraction to whaling and to the ocean is very much intertwined with an interest in whales. He states that

“Chief among these motives [for whaling] was the overwhelming idea of the great whale himself. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity. Then the wild and distant seas where he rolled his island bulk; the undeliverable, nameless perils of the whale…” (Melville, 6).

As a member of a whaling expedition, Ishmael’s responsibilities will revolve around the killing of whales. In spite of this, he seems to have respect for them.

            There are few direct physical descriptions of whales that could be viewed in a scientific light. Ishmael describes the wide, “vast arched bone of the whale’s jaw” (Melville, 12) and “the long sharp teeth of the Sperm Whale” (Melville, 67). However, these are essentially the extent of the cetology that is included in the first twenty-one chapters of Moby Dick.

            The main scientific passages in this first section of the book arise more from the workings of Ishmael’s mind than from the science of whales. There are many instances in the beginning of the novel where Ishmael’s thought processes come close to following the patterns of the scientific method. For example, at the Spouter Inn, Ishmael spends time thinking of how and where he should sleep. He thinks of several possible methods, tests one, and tries another when the first does not work. This process is also followed when he makes his presence known to Queequeg (Melville, 16-23).

            Ishmael also seems to be prone to quietly making observations about the events and people around him. His observations of Queequeg and Queequeg’s culture/religion can be categorized as anthropological observations.

            At the beginning of the novel, Ishmael ponders man’s natural and innate attraction to water – “Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged into his deepest reveries – stand that man on his legs, set his feet a-going, and he will infallibly lead you to water…” (Melville, 2). While this is foreshadowing of Ishmaels journey to and on the sea, this insight also has a biological base. Water is necessary for survival, and it is very likely that humans and other animals have an instinctual desire and ability to find water. The fact that the attraction to water is biological also establishes just how strong this attraction is. Ishmael proceeds to include many references to the ocean, to ships, and to whales, and the continuity and abundance of these references, in conjunction with the mention of the attraction to the sea, serve to convey the message that Ishmael’s journey to the ocean is inescapable.

            At the end of the twenty-first chapter, the whaling ship is preparing to depart. The remainder of the novel will likely include many more cetological and scientific references.