As has been made clear throughout the novel, the sea is all-powerful.\u00a0 It can at once be a force of daunting deaths, and in another moment promoting a sense of serenity among the crewmembers on the Pequod.\u00a0 Ishmael has many reflections and thoughts on the ocean, and also the way in which he understands the world, through being a shipmate on a whaling boat, by way of the ocean.\u00a0 The power of it is most often overwhelming, and the intense insight it can offer a man is too much for many to handle (i.e. Pip).\u00a0 But in Chapter 111, Ishmael has a more peaceful moment while experiencing the dreaminess of the Pacific\u2019s \u201ctide-beating heart of the earth\u201d (Melville 465).<\/p>\n
\u2026for here, millions of mixed shades and shadows, drowned dreams, somnambulisms, reveries; all that we call lives and souls, lie dreaming, still; tossing like slumberers in their beds; the ever-rolling ways but made so by their restlessness\u201d (465).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In this most serene moment, Ishmael understands the ocean as a sort of heaven for him.\u00a0 But he then remarks that someone such as Ahab won\u2019t ever have these feelings of calmness towards the sea.\u00a0 Captain Ahab will never be \u201clifted by those eternal swells\u201d of the sea, as he has accepted his fate, and is only able to focus on the task he feels has been set for him, to kill Moby Dick.\u00a0 Ishmael also finds it somewhat difficult to imagine that \u201cthe hated white whale must even then be swimming\u201d in this sea he himself feels so at peace with.\u00a0 We are often reminded of all that the sea keeps in hiding, and while Moby Dick is one evil among many that lurk below, Melville also uses this chapter to remind us those hidden aspects contain the \u201csoul\u201d of the sea.\u00a0 And in relating the soul of the sea to the soul of man, it is clear that both hide certain \u201cgently awful stirrings\u201d (465).<\/p>\n
In chapters such as this one, Melville is contrasting the concentrated drama of the novel\u2019s looming end with scenes of tranquility and thoughtfulness.\u00a0 Pitting the two against each other can be seen as a reflection on the act of whaling itself, as it\u2019s made up of moments of high intensity, interspersed with many lulls of waiting and watching.\u00a0 Also, in showing that Ahab has no experience of these lulls, the reader is alerted to the drama he himself is constructing.\u00a0 In not ever feeling a sense of calm, he is allowing Moby Dick to consume him, and thus forcing his fate to become a reality.<\/p>\n
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick<\/span>. New York, NY: Signet Classic, 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As has been made clear throughout the novel, the sea is all-powerful.\u00a0 It can at once be a force of daunting deaths, and in another moment promoting a sense of serenity among the crewmembers on the Pequod.\u00a0 Ishmael has many reflections and thoughts on the ocean, and also the way in which he understands the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987","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\/987","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=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":990,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions\/990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/engl177\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}