In a previous post, I discussed Melville’s anthropomorphization of the sperm whale.\u00a0 However, he frequently takes this several steps farther.\u00a0 Not only does he see the whale as human, but he often sees it as above human, almost godlike.\u00a0 This is demonstrated many times throughout the text.\u00a0 In chapter 85, The Fountain, Melville discussed whether or not the whale has a voice.\u00a0 He concludes that it does not.<\/p>\n
But then again, what has the whale to say?\u00a0 Seldom have I known any profound being that had anything to say in this world, unless forced to stammer out something by way of getting a living.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Melville sees this silence as majestic.\u00a0 Of course, the second part of this statement seems to reflect on Melville himself, excusing him from speaking in writing this book.\u00a0 More importantly, though, is the sense of the whale as profound, a noble creature.\u00a0 Later in this chapter, Melville discusses the whale spout, debating whether it is mist or water.\u00a0 He states that it is mist, and explains<\/p>\n
to this conclusion i am impelled, by considerations touching the great inherent dignity and sublimity of the Sperm Whale; I account him for no common shallwo being…He is both ponderous and profound.\u00a0 And I am convinced that from the ehads of all ponderous and profound beings, such as Plato, Pyrrho, the Devil, Jupiter, Dante, and so on, there always goes up a certain semi-visible steam, while in the act of thinking deep thoughts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The whale is not only majestic because of his size or mystery.\u00a0 He is a thinker of deep thoughts, profound on the level of Dante.\u00a0 The mention of the Devil is a bit puzzling, as it suggests some sort of evil lurks within the whale.\u00a0 However, evil or no, this creature ranks among the most sublime human thinkers.\u00a0 Melville not only respects the whale, he seems to have some worshipful reverence towards it, and its “great inherent dignity.”\u00a0 His encounters with whales seem to have convinced him of this, and Ishmael as well.\u00a0 It does make one wonder how a man, a whaler, who sees the whale such could justify killing these creatures en masse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a previous post, I discussed Melville’s anthropomorphization of the sperm whale.\u00a0 However, he frequently takes this several steps farther.\u00a0 Not only does he see the whale as human, but he often sees it as above human, almost godlike.\u00a0 This is demonstrated many times throughout the text.\u00a0 In chapter 85, The Fountain, Melville discussed whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964","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=964"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/964\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}