Moby Dick

Macbeth in Moby Dick

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly: if th’ assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all — here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’ld jump the life to come.

—Macbeth, I.vii

Throughout Moby Dick, Melville repeatedly references the plays of Wm. Shakespeare, both directly and through parallel situations and characters.  What struck me most was the relationship between Starbuck and Ahab, which bears a great resemblance to that of many of Shakespeare’s most important duos.  What drives this relationship and its correlation to Shakespeare is the power dynamic, the question of loyalty versus morality and even selfishness.  The three pairs of characters that are most present in Melville’s text are Hamlet and Claudius (the Prince and King), Macbeth and Duncan (the Thane and King) and finally Brutus and Caesar (the Senator and Emperor).  In this post, I will be looking into Macbeth’s relation to the text

You might notice a theme among these pairs: they all have bloody ends for the regent, who begins the story with power.  Each of the characters, who begin in the more prostrate position in their dynamic, performs regicide.  They plot and plan the murder of their leader, yet in each case they question their motives.

The first example, which is stunning, is the relation to Macbeth that Starbuck displays in The Musket, in which he examines the rifle that Ahab had just pointed at him.  He contemplates mutiny, staring at the tool of his potential assassination, contemplating every inch of its lock, stock and barrel.  Similarly, Macbeth, immediately before he murders King Duncan in his bedchamber, has a vision of the dagger with which he will slaughter the King.  Each of them stand staring at these weapons, thinking on what they would gain by killing their leader.  What makes this instance even more interesting is where they diverge, though. Whereas Macbeth continues onward, slaughtering his strong, intelligent leader and descending into madness, Starbuck falters and does not go forward with his mutiny.  Macbeth goes insane while butchering a leader who was psychologically stable.  Starbuck on the other is psychologically stable and fails to murder his mad captain.