Moby Dick

After Monday’s class, I decided to revisit the chapter entitled “Jonah Historically Regarded.”  In this chapter, Melville dives right into a specific discrepancy between science and religion with the story of Jonah.  The character introduced as Sag-Harbor uses his knowledge of whales to cast doubt on Jonah’s sojourn inside of one.  For each of his doubts, however, Ishmael/Melville presents an opposing interpretation that accounts for the scientific fact.  A possible interpretation even goes so far as to suggest that the whale was actually a ship simply named “The Whale.”

Melville uses this chapter to clearly set out the divide between science and religion.  Sag-Harbor is first inspired to question the Jonah story because “He had one of those quaint old fashioned Bibles, embellished with curious, un-scientific plates” (353).  This immediately places science and the Bible in opposition.  Sag-Harbor continues to bring up ways in which science and geography would prevent the Jonah story from occurring as it does in the Bible.  The responses of biblical exegesis are very liberal, as exemplified in the above example of Jonah’s whale being a boat.

The fact that Melville even presents these alternatives shows that he is open to interpretation of religion.  He insists that the Jonah story is true, but he allows that there are discrepancies that need to be accounted for, such as the location of Nineveh regarding its proximity to deep water.

While Melville’s continuous emphasis on science throughout this novel demonstrates his interest, this chapter shows that he has also allowed science to enter into a dialogue with his religious belief.  I think this dialogue has an important bearing on what makes this book so interesting, as it permits Melville to better explore the natural and biblical world.

Chapter 82, entitled The Honor and Glory of Whaling, is chock-full of both cultural and literary allusions. In this chapter, Melville recounts the stories of biblical and mythological figures who have killed or triumphed over whales. The chapter begins as Ishmael remarks,

The more I dive into this matter of whaling, and push my researches up to the very spring-head of it, so much the more am I impressed with its great honorableness and antiquity and especially when I find so many great demi-gods and heroes, prophets of all sorts, who one way or other have shed distinction upon it, I am transported with the reflection that I myself belong, though but subordinately, to so emblazoned a fraternity. (Melville 395)

This passage and the chapter in general serve a dual purpose. It gives Melville another chance to display his knowledge of history, mythology, and scriptures, but it primarily functions as way for Melville to demonstrate to his readers that whales have been depicted as dangerous beasts throughout history, and sailors who willingly hunt these Leviathans are elevated into a heroic and almost god-like “fraternity.”

Melville’s first literary allusion describes the story of Perseus, who Melville defines as the “first whaleman.” Perseus was a hero from Greek mythology who saved the princess Andromeda from a “Leviathan” or whale. Melville writes,

The gallant Perseus, a son of Jupiter, was the first whaleman; and to the eternal honor of our calling be it said, that the first whale attacked by our brotherhood was not killed with any sordid intent. Those were the knightly days of our profession, when we only bore arms to succor the distressed, and not to fill men’s lampfeeders. (395)

This passage is a curious juxtaposition to the last one; in the first, Melville honors whalers by putting them in the same class as “demi-gods” and “heroes.” But, in this passage he implies that killing whales “to fill men’s lampfeeders” is a “sordid intent.” I get the feeling that Melville is conflicted by whaling; while he is incredibly impressed with the courageousness it takes to attack a giant and powerful animal, he also feels that hunting whales for the sole purpose of oil is not so honorable and heroic.

Despite this not so subtle political commentary, Melville goes on and adds St. George (religious saint), Hercules (demi-god), Jonah (prophet), and Vishnoo (Hindu god) to the “emblazoned fraternity.” Although Melville was a politically-minded individual, it seems his principal goal in this chapter is to establish whalers as a brave and fearless group, despite the immoral aspects of their job.

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 only the first 15 chapters of Moby Dick, Melville makes multiple biblical references. The most lengthy is the story of Jonah. Ishmael stumbles into a church and sits through a very lengthy sermon, all about Jonah’s flee from God. Since this passage is so long, I questioned its significance immediately: obviously the story involved a whale but Jonah’s story is important for another reason. Jonah, before getting swallowed by a whale, is running from something. He runs from God because he refuses to carry out God’s will. To escape this responsibility, Jonah leaves land on a ship that will hopefully “carry him into countries where God does not reign” (Melville 37). Almost immediately I connected this attitude of escaping, or running away, with Ishmael’s own description of himself in the beginning of the book.

Just as Jonah is running to sea to escape his religious expectations, Ishmael runs to sea to escape the alienation he often feels on land. Ishmael calls this alienation “a damp, drizzly November in [his] soul” (1). When he falls into spells of boredom and “nothing particular interests [him] on shore” (1), Ishmael takes off. The tendency to run away also parallels the history of Ishmael’s name in the Bible.

Ishmael is the name of Abraham’s first born son, who was born of Hagar, a servant, rather than Sarah, Abraham’s wife. In jealousy, Sarah exiles Ishmael and Hagar. Even though Ishmael is banished, he is still destined to do great things. Granted, Ishmael, in this story, is not running from something. But he is leaving his familiar world and about to embark upon a very enlightening journey, just like Jonah and Ishmael (in Moby Dick).

After assessing the significance of Ishmael’s name and the story of Jonah, I have decided that going to sea replaces religion on Ishmael’s life. When feeling down and without a purpose, a common remedy is faith. When seeking enlightenment, religion is a common path. Ishmael goes to sea for these exact reasons. The reader can tell Ishmael isn’t very satisfied by his religious faith in the way he speaks of the church. He negatively portrays the worshipers as “islands of men and women” that are “purposely sitting apart from the other” and “steadfastly eyeing marble tablets” (30). All of these descriptions make the churchgoers seem empty and emotionless, furthermore separating them from our narrator.

Assuming sailing (and soon whaling) serve as Ishmael’s religious replacement, I expect that the voyage will provide him with very enlightening and adventurous events. In a way, the churchgoing event could serve as a method of foreshadowing, since the sermon is all about Jonah and his flee from land. It helps the reader predict that Ishmael will find something bigger than himself while at sea.