Exploring Human Nature in Moby Dick: Themes and Insights

Moby-Dick The setting of Moby–Dick is ideal for the story; the mystique and terror of the sea brings out raw emotions in the men, equalizing them and allowing Melville to tell a story that is about not just a group of humans on a boat, but about human nature itself. Melville personifies the sea, an omnipresent character in the book. Originally, the sea meant escape from "the drizzly November in [Ishmael's] soul" (Melville 27), but as the men travel farther away from land, some of the excitement for which Ishmael hoped vanishes in favor of a nervous fear. The sea comes to represent the unknown, with its "unshored, harbourless immensities," that which is beyond the comprehension of Ishmael, and even that of some of the more experienced whalers. Melville compounds ...show more content... A fight breaks out when a Spaniard insults Daggoo about his race, but the fight is quickly quelled when a storm presents itself. "Hands by the halyards! in top–gallant sails! Stand by to reef topsails!" come the shouts of one of the ship's mates (Melville 219). The men obey his orders immediately, putting aside their personal qualm for the necessity of the greater good. No matter how divided the men are on land, at sea they must come together. Even though there is a hierarchy of command, with Ahab distinctly lost, the sense of equality aboard the ship means that no character's individuality is lost. In fact, the establishment of a base equity between the men allows Melville to comment on human nature in general by using the characters as blank slates onto which he can project the traits he wishes to address. Each character serves a greater purpose: Ahab with his revenge–seeking monomania, Starbuck with his mindfulness, Stubb with his carelessness, the White Whale and the pain it Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Moby Dick Whaling On October 18th,1851, the Great American Epic "Moby Dick" was published by Herman Melville. Melville worked as a crew member on several vessels beginning in 1839. These sea voyages sparked a theme of seafaring life stories; some personal and some imagined events. As a whaler Melville overheard many different tales about whaling , but the one he became most obsessed with was about a survivor of a ship that had been attacked and sunk by a great white whale . The name of the ship was "The Essex". The Essex was an American whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, a town that thrived on whale oil and hunting sperm whales. The ship was under the command of Captain George Pollard Jr., along with his first and second mates; Owen Chase and Matthew Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

Moby Dick Controversy Herman Melville has been praised mainly for his true work of literature, Moby Dick. He had written many other books, such as Typee, Omoo, White–Jacket, and many other books in just a short lifetime of 72 years. Not only that, but most of those stories were based on real–life stories. Melville had lived a very strange life, and just like his books; it has quite a story to tell. Melville was born on August 1, 1819, and he had no idea what he was going to go through in his life. Once he turned about six years old, he contracted scarlet fever, which caused permanent vision damage. His family had a lot of money, and that was because Melville had a wealthy merchant for a father. When Allan Melville, Herman's father, tried to branch off into the ...show more content... He toured the country from 1857 to 1860, giving lectures on a wide variety of topics such as "Statues in Rome," "Traveling," and many other broad subjects. Melville had an even greater amount of depression when his oldest son, Malcolm Melville, committed suicide. Once again, Melville started to travel again so he could gain some ideas on things that he could write poems or short novels about. Melville continued to write poetry through the last few years of his life, publishing John Marr and Other Sailors privately for some of his close friends, and family members in the year of 1888. Melville was working on the handwritten draft of Billy Budd, Foretopman when he died of a severe heart attack on September 28, 1891. Melville's death was only reported in one newspaper in all of New York City, which it only had a very brief description of his literary works. Around the year 1920, Melville's book Moby Dick was finally appreciated. It was used in High School curriculums everywhere across the United States and was, and still is, praised for one of the greatest literary works of all time. In a lifetime of only 72 years, Melville wrote and got published, many books and poems that are now cornerstones of literature across the entire Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

Moby Dick Themes Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Limits of Knowledge As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby–Dick, to offer a simple collection of literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the essential nature of the whale. Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his authority as a narrator and the ...show more content... These examples reverse the traditional association of whiteness with purity. Whiteness conveys both a lack of meaning and an unreadable excess of meaning that confounds individuals. Moby Dick is the pinnacle of whiteness, and Melville's characters cannot objectively understand the White Whale. Ahab, for instance, believes that Moby Dick represents evil, while Ishmael fails in his attempts to determine scientifically the whale's fundamental nature. Surfaces and Depths Ishmael frequently bemoans the impossibility of examining anything in its entirety, noting that only the surfaces of objects and environments are available to the human observer. On a live whale, for example, only the outer layer presents itself; on a dead whale, it is impossible to determine what constitutes the whale's skin, or which part–skeleton, blubber, head–offers the best understanding of the entire animal. Moreover, as the whale swims, it hides much of its body underwater, away from the human gaze, and no one knows where it goes or what it does. The sea itself is the greatest frustration in this regard: its depths are mysterious and inaccessible to Ishmael. This motif represents the larger problem of the limitations of human knowledge. Humankind is not all–seeing; we can only observe, and thus only acquire knowledge about, that fraction of entities–both individuals and environments– to which we have access: surfaces. Symbols Symbols are objects, Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Moby Dick Essay The main character in the novel Moby–Dick, written by Herman Melville, is a middle–aged man named Starbuck. This well–founded character tries to overthrow Captain Ahab. The problem is that nobody can overthrow Captain Ahab. Starbuck perceives that it is inconsiderate for Ahab to ask the crew members to endanger their lives to kill a white whale named Moby–Dick , that Captain Ahab wants revenge on. Starbuck is not going to work against his Caption because of his admirable character traits, such as being loyal, a good–natured, and religious. Starbuck is an exceedingly loyal man. When Starbuck finds out that Captain Ahab is only wanting to go whale hunting to obtain revenge on the whale called Moby–Dick, that took his leg, he tries to change the Ahab's mind about seeking revenge on Moby–Dick, aside from that the crew members came here to hunt whales for whale oil for the ship. In addition to Starbuck being loyal to his Captain, knowing that he was Ahab's first mate and has been since then and he cannot just turn his back on Ahab. It appears as if Starbuck isn't going to be able to change his Captain's mind, nor the crew's mind about hunting down Moby–Dick. ...show more content... Starbuck is a good–natured man considering he refused Ahab's cup. Starbuck had become fed up with Ahab, as well as how he treats people, so Starbuck comes to a decision to kill Ahab. However, he is a good–natured man for deciding not to follow through with killing Ahab. Near the ending of the novel, the boat was sinking and most members of the crew were dead along with Captain Ahab. Starbuck, Ishmael, and a young boy named Pip were still alive. Pip is captured in a compressed hole, he could not break free, and Starbuck could have saved his own life, however, he stays with Pip till the boat sank and died with Pip. Giving up his own life like that makes him a good–natured Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

Moby Dick Essay Moby Dick Moby–Dick is the one American story which every individual seems to recognize. Because of its pervasiveness into our country's collective psyche, the tale has been reproduced in film and cartoon, and references to the characters and the whale can be found in commercials, sitcoms, and music, proving the novel to still be relevant today. It is the epitome of American Romanticism because it delves into the human spirit , the force of imagination, and power of the emotions and the intellect . The novel praises and critiques the American society in sharp and unequivocal terms, while, at the same time, mirroring this mixed society through the "multinational crew of...the Pequod" (Shaw 61). Melville, through his elaborate ...show more content... When he delves into the spiritual and emotional parts of himself, he does so only briefly and with little comprehension. The two characters are clearly opposites to one another. But by the action's end, Ishmael and Ahab begin to cross the lines into each other's manner of thinking and explore, in their own way, the idea of self discovery. And it is this blending of thoughts and ideas which makes it blatantly clear for the reader that the entire novel is a contsruct of the whole foundation of American Romanticism, with all of the nationalistic pride this mode of writing entails. By meshing the Romantic ideals through the two primary characters, the novel further positions itself as catalist for all of these ideologies. Imagination, the forces of nature and man's will, the connections between man, God, and nature, and the roles of the intellect and the emotions are all blended in Melville's characterization of both Ahab and Ishmael. The story's beginning, which the reader does not discover until the end, is Ishmael's "albatross." This is a tale which Ishmael must share with the reader. It is the story of obsession and what obsession can do to an individual and the lives of the people this individual touches. But the story is not wholly Ishmael's, nor is it wholly Ahab's. The novel is the combination of these two and their perceptions of life and the world; together, Ishmael and Ahab form a complete man. Ishmael, Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

Moby Dick Reflection Last weekend, specifically, on Saturday November 18, 2017 I received the opportunity to attend a Moby Dick reading at Venice beach. For this reading I chose to read the chapter Ramadan for several reasons with a group of my friends. Initially during the summer, when we first had to read this novel this chapter was by far one of my favorites because it depicts the humor author Herman Melville instilled in his work. Additionally, this chapter involved a wide range of events emotions felt by the narrator and thus transferred to the reader. Due to the wide range of emotions within the chapter my group and I wanted to truly emphasis the panic felt by Ishmael when he notices Queequeg concealed behind the closed door. From the panic felt by Ishmael to the eccentric nature of Mrs.Hussey we aspired to capture it all through our voices. When I first arrived at Venice a rush of gusty wind filled the air and the smell of the salty ocean encompassed my lungs. As I began my trek towards the Moby Dick reading I saw a large congregation of other Oak Park students, I could recognize due to their Oak Park High School clothing. Upon arrival, I instantly heard the harsh waves crashing against the soft sand, leaving a virtually untouched path of sand after their arrival. This process of purifying the sand reminded me of the purity embodied by Ishmael during the start of the novel. Since I arrived early Saturday morning, a multitude of people were constantly arriving to see what was going Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

Moby Dick Essay Topics

Related Documents