Moby Dick

After viewing the  film The Exorcist, directed by William Friedkin for a religion class, I started wondering about the role of organized religion in Melville’s novel, Moby Dick.  My result: the realization that Captain Ahab, as captain of the vessel called the Pequod, is the shepherd of his crew.  Ahab is the priest and father of a nautical parish, a lonely church set on the sea.

Why make this analogy, you ask?  It is simple.  Melville was a religions man, raised in a family of devout Calvinists, in a time when possession and demonic powers were still feared to some extent, no matter how small.   It was key to Calvinists that one not fall from the path of righteousness, and this path was beset on all sides by Satan and his minions. Yet Ahab, as the priest and leader of his men is a failure.  He has fallen from the path.  He is the perfect example of a spiritual leader who has failed and follows a path of darkness.

The first step in Ahab’s fall was his worship of a false idol.  Ahab turns away from God and begins to worship the White Whale.  And in this context, where the sea is the cruel unforgiving, dark region of the earth, they are passing through hell to find his “god.”  He leads goes astray, taking his flock, and this being the case, he dooms them all to hell and a watery grave.  They meet a cruel fate for turning away from goodness.  Even at the beginning of the novel, the right path is shown: in the church, in the sermon of the preacher, Jonah’s tale is described, and this should warn them that hell is found in the watery deep.

Throughout the book this is a fascinating thread to follow.  Ahab repeatedly defies the Christian God and, as the leader of his crew, he takes them with him.  He is truly a failed shepherd that has led his flock into the mouth of the beast.