143
However, this diverse floating
society is far from democratic:
social and racial distinctions
make for inequality and all on
board bend to the iron rule of Ahab.
The diversity of thoughts and
feelings experienced by the crew of
the whaler forms a dramatic
counterpoint to the monomania of
the captain and the monolithic
energy of the whale that he is
determined to track down and kill.
The ship is a floating factory,
as well as a vessel of pursuit, and
Melville was fully conscious of
the parallels that readers would
see between the ship and
American capitalism, the machine
age, and the market economy.The Bible and prophecy
Moby-Dick is an epic tale of
blasphemous aspiration (“Talk
not to me of blasphemy, man;”
says Ahab, “I’d strike the sun if
it insulted me”), and it uses biblical
references to add meaning to its
structure. Its two main characters,
Ishmael and Ahab, are named after
figures in the Bible. In Genesis16–25, Ishmael, the illegitimate son
of the patriarch Abraham, was cast
out in favor of the legitimate son,
Isaac. By giving his narrator this
name, Melville underlines the fact
that Ishmael is a wanderer and
an outsider: his inexperience at
whaling prevents his unqualified
acceptance by the crew. Ahab, in
Kings 1.21, is a ruler who covets a
vineyard and obtains it by means
of deceit, but is destined to come
to an inglorious end. His namesake
follows a loosely analogous pattern
in Moby-Dick, finding success in a
way that seals his own doom.
Melville, concerned with the
machinations of chance and fate,
uses prophecy to create a sense
of ominous foreboding. BeforeROMANTICISM AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
Ishmael signs up on the Pequod, a
character named Elijah (in another
biblical equivalence) predicts a
vague doom for the vessel. Later,
a prophecy by Fedallah, a harpooner,
foreshadows the final stages of the
narrative’s trajectory. He says that
the captain will die only after
seeing two hearses, one “not made
by mortal hands” and one made of
wood grown in the US—which
Ahab interprets as a sign of his
surviving the voyage.Hellfire and retribution
Ishmael comments tartly, after
making the acquaintance of the
harpooner Queequeg: “Better
sleep with a sober cannibal than
a drunken Christian.” Such ❯❯Whaling ships were a regular sight
in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where
Melville worked and where the early
parts of Moby-Dick are set. The last
whaler left the harbor in 1925.Moby Dick seeks thee
not. It is thou, thou, that
madly seekest him!
Moby-DickUS_138-145_MobyDick.indd 143 08/10/2015 13:05