As one of the most explicitly gendered chapters in the entire novel, \u201cThe Symphony\u201d provides a host of opportunities for interpretation. \u00a0Neither does Melville seem entirely consistent with what he describes as \u201cfeminine\u201d or \u201cmasculine,\u201d within this chapter or throughout the text as a whole. \u00a0The \u201cmasculine sea\u201d in \u201cThe Symphony\u201d has been decidedly feminine and even maternal in the past, and other female descriptions of the natural world in the chapter seem to conflict with this masculinized sea that is a part of it. \u00a0In fact, the \u201cstrong, troubled murderous thinkings\u201d of the sea creatures seem to describe Ahab more than anything \u2013 furthering the idea that he is somehow apart from the rest of the world, and also foreshadowing the violent nature of what is to come. \u00a0I was especially surprised to hear the (feminine and natural) world called a \u201cstep-mother\u201d for Ahab, \u201ccruel \u2013 and forbidding\u201d in the past but which actually \u201cnow threw affectionate arms round his stubborn neck\u201d (479). \u00a0Reading this I was curious if by 1850 the \u201ccruel step-mother\u201d stereotype that has been so reinforced in modern culture had yet taken root.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, if Ahab has indeed lost his humanity, as we have discussed several times in class, then it makes sense for the feminized world encompassing humanity and nature to be only indirectly related to him \u2013 thus a stepmother rather than a biological mother. \u00a0As this chapter is all about making the reader sympathize with the grizzled old captain, that he is again distanced from this world by some \u201ccruel\u201d force even as he describes his desire to return to his family and the world of normalcy is very bittersweet. \u00a0In fact, the thing that holds him back again and again seems to be himself, \u201cthe cantankerous thing in his soul\u201d (478). \u00a0Perhaps Mother Nature herself is responsible for putting this \u201cthing\u201d there and driving him to these lengths; and yet, even if he would now be welcome into this other world represented by his \u201cstepmother,\u201d it is too late for Ahab to turn back. \u00a0What began as a chapter with some margin of hope that Ahab could accept the embrace of the world at large and abandon his suicidal search for Moby Dick ends with bleak resignation that Ahab is doomed, unable to shake off the cruel binds of his calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As one of the most explicitly gendered chapters in the entire novel, \u201cThe Symphony\u201d provides a host of opportunities for interpretation. \u00a0Neither does Melville seem entirely consistent with what he describes as \u201cfeminine\u201d or \u201cmasculine,\u201d within this chapter or throughout the text as a whole. \u00a0The \u201cmasculine sea\u201d in \u201cThe Symphony\u201d has been decidedly feminine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1088,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions\/1088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}