I remember reading another student’s post on Chapter 132 (“The Symphony”) and how this chapter describes the environment and nature as being gendered. I found that post intriguing and wanted to explore those themes further. In this chapter, t is clear that Melville describes the sky as being feminine and the sea masculine:<\/p>\n
It was a clear steel-blue day. The firmaments of air and sea were hardly separable in that all-pervading azure; only, the pensive air was transparently pure and soft, with a woman’s look, and the robust and man-like sea heaved with long, strong, lingering swells, as Samson’s chest in his sleep.<\/p>\n
Hither, and thither, on high, glided the snow-white wings of small, unspeckled birds; these were the gentle thoughts of the feminine air; but to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; anf these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea (478).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
My question is: why does Melville ascribe these qualities to nature? What is the intent behind making the sea and sky appear to be in some type of opposition to each other (at least sexually)? This is further complicated when Melville writes that “though thus contrasting within, the contrast was only in shades and shadows without; those two seemed one; it was only the sex, as it were, that distinguished them” (478). So although the sea and sky are different genders, they are still viewed as essentially one entity (nature). In this case, it seems that nature is described this way to provide a direct contrast with Ahab, who is determined to destroy Moby Dick (clearly a part of nature). Ahab is described as being “[t]ied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin; […] lifting his splintered helmet of a brow to the fair girl’s forehead of heaven” (478). Here, Ahab is depicted as a violent, disgusting being who appears ready to battle (or perhaps plunder and rape) nature. What does it mean that Ahab is going to attempt to fight against the “masculine” sea, instead of the “feminine” air? Does this make it seem more like an actual battle, instead of some sexualized conquest? Of course, Ahab is also destroyed by the sea, which makes me wonder if Melville is commenting on how many masculine beings can actually exist together on Earth. It seems that nature is its own husband and wife (so to speak), which also happen to be essentially one and the same with contrasts “only in shades and shadows.” Although Ishmael laments how oblivious nature was “of old Ahab’s close-coiled woe,” it later seems that nature was (in some way) quite aware of Ahab and prepared to handle him (478).<\/p>\n
I found this chapter fascinating and am still confused about what to make of it. It seems like one could view the “symphony” as the interplay between all the facets of nature, which create something beautiful (perhaps even artful or musical). And in another way, it appears that Ahab is merely a character in this play, someone who has to follow through with the show even though it leads to his eventual destruction. Even he has a part in this symphony, although at times he appears to be in direct opposition to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I remember reading another student’s post on Chapter 132 (“The Symphony”) and how this chapter describes the environment and nature as being gendered. I found that post intriguing and wanted to explore those themes further. In this chapter, t is clear that Melville describes the sky as being feminine and the sea masculine: It was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environmental-criticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189","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\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1189"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1193,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1189\/revisions\/1193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}