The Crucible 763bers into sharing his quest. Though obsessed with
violent revenge, Ahab does have moments, such as in
chapter 132 (“The Symphony”), when he meditates
upon the futility of his many years hunting whales.
Yet Ahab cannot avert his mind and soul from his
obsession with destroying Moby Dick. When Ahab
finally tracks down his nemesis and does battle with
Moby Dick for three consecutive days, the white
whale not only destroys Ahab, but also sinks Pequod.
With the exception of Ishmael, everyone on board
the ship dies because of Ahab’s insistent desire to
continue the cycle of retributive violence by doing
battle with Moby Dick.
When the narrative begins (an indeterminate
number of years after his adventures with Ahab),
Ishmael is a veteran of the whale fishery and has
clearly seen his share of fighting and bloodshed. Yet
Ishmael, unlike Ahab, is not defined by an obsessive
impulse to destroy. Rather, Ishmael is a survivor, who
remains curious not only about whales in particular
(which explains the many chapters on whales and
whaling), but also about the mystic and symbolic
significance of the leviathan, the ocean, and nature
in general. Ishmael finds that all created nature is a
deep paradox: It seems to alternate between violence
and peace; chaos and tranquillity; and kindness and
vicious cruelty. As Ishmael observes in chapter 119,
“Warmest climes but nurse the cruelest fangs”; all
within nature alternates between nourishing life and
destroying it. Referring to the “horrible vulturism of
earth!” (chapter 69) and the “universal cannibalism
of the sea” (chapter 58), Ishmael frequently medi-
tates upon how nature exists in a cycle of predatory
violence, where the weak become the prey of the
strong. Yet Ishmael also observes that in the midst
of violence and chaos, nature affords life-affirming
nourishment, what Ishmael calls an “eternal mild-
ness of joy” (chapter 87). Indeed, Ishmael finds that
he has been returned to a primitive, even savage,
state by his many years of violent whale-hunting:
“Long exile from Christendom and civilization
inevitably restores man to . . . savagery. Your true
whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois.
I myself am a savage, owing no allegiance but to
the King of Cannibals” (chapter 57). He comes
to realize that the human person, like nature, is
divided between the desire for peace and the urge
for violence, and Ishmael ultimately longs for peace.
In chapter 58, he proclaims “as this appalling ocean
surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man
there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but
encompassed by all the horrors of the half known
life. . . . Push not off from that isle, thou canst never
return!” In the end, the enigmatic Ishmael is driven
by the desire for knowledge and a peaceful life, and
his constant wandering is geared toward attaining
these goals. He is the foil for Ahab, who is over-
whelmingly motivated by physical, psychological,
and spiritual violence.
Ultimately, Ishmael’s tale of Ahab’s mad hunt for
Moby Dick concludes in nearly complete destruc-
tion. Ishmael himself becomes infected with Ahab’s
magnetic hatred for Moby Dick, but Ishmael sur-
vives the violent hunt. He is the sole survivor picked
up by another whaling vessel after Moby Dick
destroys Pequod and its crew. The first and last chap-
ters of the narrative (“Loomings” and “Epilogue”)
clearly indicate that Ishmael is still trying to process
the trauma of his violent experiences. Perhaps in
telling the tale, and remaining for so many years
in the whaling industry after his experiences on
Pequod, Ishmael is seeking the understanding that
will bring a level of peace to a life riddled with trau-
matic violence.
Aaron UrbanczykmiLLEr, arTHur The Crucible
(1953)
Based on the historical Salem Witch Trials, Arthur
Miller’s play The Crucible highlights the effects of
juvenile hysteria on one Puritan town. At the onset,
the town minister’s daughter, Betty Parris, is suffer-
ing from a mysterious illness that overcame her after
dancing in the forest with her friends and a slave
known as Tituba.
Betty’s friend Abigail arrives at her sickbed and
is questioned about the events in the forest. Abigail
claims the girls are innocent, and Tituba is ulti-
mately accused of witchcraft. Pressured into confess-
ing that she works for the devil, Tituba turns back
to God and names other women in the town who
cavort with the devil. Encouraged by her confession,
the young girls do likewise, including Abigail and