762 Melville, Herman
Mapple preach on the story of the prophet Jonah
and the whale (chapters 7–9). This visit is a strange
paradox for Ishmael: The chapel is filled with mar-
ble tablets memorializing the dead lost at sea, which
Ishmael finds almost an invitation to despair; yet
Father Mapple’s sermon concludes with a medita-
tion upon redemption for those who, like Jonah (and
unlike Ahab), accept God’s punishment and repent
of their sins. Preaching becomes a darkly ironic farce
out at sea as dramatized in Stubb’s insistence that
the black cook, Fleece, preach to the sharks who are
feasting upon the carcass of a recently killed whale
(chapter 64). The whale itself is placed at the center
of sacred space and religious worship in the novel. In
chapter 102, Ishmael records visiting a third sacred
temple. The pagan temple is both worship space and
object of worship, for it is the skeletal remains of a
whale itself.
Ishmael’s visit to a pagan temple suggests another
important religious dimension of Moby-Dick. The
novel incorporates numerous Christian denomina-
tions and pagan religions into its fabric, sometimes
for comic and satirical ends, but ultimately to
emphasize the vastness and primordial significance
of humanity’s striving to know the divine. Ishmael
was “born and bred in the bosom of the infallible
Presbyterian Church,” though he has no qualms
in joining Queequeg in worshiping his idol, Yojo
(chapter 10). Bildad, Peleg, and Starbuck are all
Quakers, and Ishmael lampoons the doctrinal rigid-
ity of their religion by humorously telling Bildad
that Queequeg is a born member and deacon of “the
First Congregational Church” (by which Ishmael
intends all of humanity and not a religious com-
munion). The crazed prophet Gabriel is a Shaker
(an English Christian sect that came to America in
the late 18th century). Pequod is also populated with
pagans, including Queequeg and Fedallah (who is
referred to as the “Parsee,” indicating his alignment
with an Indian strain of Zoroastrianism).
In processing the complex religious framework
of his experiences, Ishmael distances himself from
his doctrinaire Presbyterian roots. While at times
feeling the draw of nihilism and atheism (see chap-
ters 42 and 49), Ishmael does not reject the religious
quest altogether. He tends to remain a seeking skep-
tic who does not claim absolute religious knowledge.
He remains one who ever strives to understand the
inscrutable workings of God in his creation.
Perhaps the whale himself best represents the
complexity of religious representation in Moby-
Dick. The whale is the phantom in Ishmael’s soul
(see the end of chapter 1) who represents the divine,
the mysterious, and the unknowable; and the whale
remains the object of Ishmael’s lifelong quest for
knowledge and wisdom. Father Mapple describes
the whale as the agent of God’s wrath and justice
(chapter 9). Ishmael asserts that the whale is immor-
tal (chapter 106) and in his imagination compares
the whale to both Satan and Yahweh (chapter 86).
Moby Dick himself is referred to by Gabriel as the
Shaker God incarnate (chapter 71), and Ishmael
calls the white whale a “grand god” (chapter 133).
The paradox of seeking religious knowledge is best
expressed by Ishmael’s musings upon the whale: He
states emphatically of the whale “I know him not,
and never will” (chapter 86), yet he also avers “unless
you own the whale, you are but a provincial and
sentimentalist in Truth” (chapter 7).
Aaron Urbanczykviolence in Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick is a novel permeated with violence and
the trauma existing in the wake of great violence.
Ahab, captain of the whaling vessel Pequod, was
wounded body and soul by Moby Dick. Prior to the
beginning of the novel, Ahab had fought with Moby
Dick, losing his leg in combat with the famous
white whale. During the long return home following
this incident, Ahab became obsessed with exacting
revenge upon Moby Dick. Ahab was so traumatized
by this event that he began to see the white whale
as a symbol for all that is evil and inexplicable in
the world. In chapter 41, Ishmael observes: “all evil,
to crazy Ahab, [was] made visibly personified, and
made practicably assailable in Moby Dick.” Ahab
was mentally and physically scarred by his encounter
with Moby Dick, and obsessive violence is Ahab’s
overwhelming response to this traumatic event.
Thus, after the Pequod again sets sail and is safely
out at sea, Ahab dramatically reveals that he has
now devoted his life to hunting down and brutally
annihilating Moby Dick, and that he will use any
means available to usurp the will of his crew mem-