Ahabs Evil Quest Melvilles Symbols In Moby

Ahab?s Evil Quest: Melville?s Symbols In Moby-Dick Essay Ahabs Evil Quest:Melvilles Symbols in Moby-DickHerman Melville began working on his epic novel Moby-Dick in 1850, writing itprimarily as a report on the whaling voyages he undertook in the 1830s and early 1840s. Many critics suppose that his initial book did not contain characters such as Ahab,Starbuck, or even Moby Dick, but the summer of 1850 changed Melvilles writing andhis masterpiece. He became friends with author Nathaniel Hawthorne and was greatlyinfluenced by him. He also read Shakespeare and Miltons Paradise Lost (Murray 41). These influences lead to the novel Melville completed and published in 1851. Althoughshunned by critics after its release, Moby-Dick enjoyed a critical renaissance in the 1920sand as assumed its rightful place in the canons of American and world literature as agreat classic. Through the symbols employed by Melville, Moby-Dick studies mansrelationship with his universe, his fate, and his God. Ahab represents the league humansmake with evil when they ques tion the fate God has willed upon them, and God isrepresented by the great white whale, Moby Dick. In Moby-Dick, Herman Melville usesa vast array of symbols and allegories in the search for the true explanation of mansplace in the universe and his relationship with his fate and his God. The focus of cruel fate and evil symbols is placed on the head of Ahab, captain ofthe Pequod. Ishmael, though narrator of the story, is not the center of Moby-Dick afterCaptain Ahab is introduced onto the deck of the ship and into action. The focus of thenovel shifts from the freshman whaler to experienced Ahab, an ungodly, god-like man(Melville 82). Having been a whaler for many years, he is a well respected captain, yethis previous voyage has left him without a limb, and in its place is a peg leg carved fromwhale ivory. Ahab remains below decks shadowed in obscurity for the initial stages ofthe Pequods journey into the Atlantic. Ahab soon reveals his devilish plan to his crew,however, in a frenzied attack of oratory he wishes to seek, hunt, and destroy the WhiteWhale, the fabled Moby Dick. It was the white whale Moby Dick which had, on Ahabsprior voyage, ravenously devoured his leg, and Ahab harbored a resentful revenge on hispersecutor. Any mention of Moby Dick sent Ahab into a fu rious rage (Melville 155). Heriles against Starbuck, the first mate and Starbuck replies, vengeance on a dumb brute! . . . to be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous (Melville 155). It is through Ahabs speech and his subsequent dialogue with Starbuck that asecond major symbol is introduced into the story, Moby Dick. Blasphemy is irreverencetoward God or something sacred, not irreverence toward a dumb brutish whale. YetStarbuck accuses Ahab of blasphemy. Melville places this rather harsh accusatory wordin the mouth of the Christian-minded Starbuck, directed at a devilishly revengeful Ahab. The only way actions taken against Moby Dick could be blasphemous is if he is sacred. Through indirect descriptions of Moby Dick and direct rantings of an insane man,Melville peppers Moby-Dick with hints and clues at the true essence Ahab sees behindthe symbol of Moby Dick. According to sailors stories and legends, Moby Dick is seen in two places at onceat different places around the globe. In this trait Melville is suggesting omnipresence, agodlike trait (Melville 172). The sailors think he is immortal, another godlike trait,because he has been harpooned many times and still lives (Braswell 152). Ahab himselfbelieves Moby Dicks power is outrageous, like Gods omnipotence. Ahab states inChapter XXXVI, that inscrutable thing Moby Dicks power is chiefly what I hate(Melville157). In addition to the godlike characteristics of omnipotence andomnipresence, Moby Dick has garnered a reputation for tearing through sinners. Heshows godlike justice and mercy in saving Steelkilt and killing the unjust Radney, as thecrew learns from the sailors of the Town-Ho (Auden 11). Melville uses many other symbols to make the white whale a symbol of divinepower (Braswell 151). His awful austere beauty is godlike, as is his titanic power and hispyramidical white hump. His color, white, has signified a special sanctity; and Melvilledevotes an entire chapter, narrated by Ishmael, in which he explores the meaning ofwhiteness through the ages and through the eyes of many different cultures (Arvin221-222). In Chapter LI, the Pequod sights a mysterious silvery jet of water obviouslyemanating from a whale. The sails are spread and the ship gives chase, but thespirit-spout is never identified. If this spirit-spout is emanating from Moby Dick, it isreminiscent of Gods pillar of fire in Exodus. Through these and other small clues andsymbols, Melville insinuates that Moby Dick is sacred and godlike. Ball Bearings EssayMelville adds more symbolism near the end of the novel. When Ahab announcedhis devious intentions early in the voyage, he offered an Ecuadorian dubloon as a prizefor the first man who sighted Moby Dick. The coin shows the sun moving into thezodiacal constellation of Libra, the Scales. Did Melville plant this symbol to suggest thescales of fate were weighing in on Ahab? (Chase, Melville 59). Fate weighed Ahaband found him wanting because his evil quest ends in despair. He chases Moby Dick,Moby Dick does not chase him. Had he not pursued Moby Dick, Moby Dick would nothave destroyed the entire ship and its crew, save Ishmael who survived the encounter(Arvin 217). On day three of Ahabs hunt, the whale destroys the whaling boats and thePequod, thereby destroying those who seek to escape their human limitations andquestion their divinely ordained fate. Melvilles allegories and symbolism Ahabsymbolizing men who feel wronged by God and Moby Dick symbolizing a vengeful Go dwho will destroy those who wish to destroy Him are woven into a timelessmasterpiece of exposition and are revealed through a vast array of symbols, hints, andrantings. Works CitedArvin, Newton. The Whale. Parker and Hayford. 196. Auden, W. H. The Romantic Use of Symbols. Gilmore. 9. Bloom, Harold, ed. Herman Melvilles Moby-Dick: Modern Critical Interpretations.New York: Chelsea, 1986. Braswell, William. Moby-Dick Is an Allegory of Humanitys Struggle with God.Leone. 149. Buell, Lawrence. Moby-Dick as Sacred Text. Bloom. 62. Chase, Richard, ed. Melville: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice, 1965. Chase, Richard. Melville and Moby-Dick. Chase. 49. Gilmore, Michael T., ed. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Moby-Dick. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: Prentice, 1977. Guiley, Rosemary. Harpers Encyclopedia of Mystical Paranormal Experience. NewYork: Castle, 1991. Hillway, Tyrus. Herman Melville. New York: Twayne, 1963. House, Paul R. Old Testament Survey. Nashville: Broadman, 1992. Kazin, Alfred. Introduction to Moby-Dick. Chase. 39. Leone, Bruno, ed. Readings on Herman Melville. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997. Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick, or The Whale. 1851. New York: Bantam, 1981. Murray, Henry A. In Nomine Diaboli: Moby-Dick. Bloom. 39. Parker, Hershel, and Harrison Hayford, eds. Moby-Dick as Dubloon. New York: Norton,1970. Spiller, Robert, et al. Literary History of the United States of America. New York: Scott,1968.