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By Herman Melville (1819-1891) A Study Guide |
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. Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings...© 2004 . .........With a carpet bag of belongings, he stops in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on a Saturday night in December to lodge at an inn. Passing houses named “The Crossed Harpoons” and “The Sword-Fish Inn,” he chooses to stay at “The Spouter-Inn” operated by Peter Coffin. There, he rooms with a tattooed savage named Queequeg, who sells shrunken heads and shaves with a harpoon. But the brown-skinned man–a native of the Pacific island of Rokovoko, near New Zealand–turns out to be an amiable companion. In fact, this pagan aborigine is in many ways more humane and civilized than the Christians of Europe and America. The son of a king, he left his home for the adventure of whaling while living with and learning about Christians. .........On Sunday Ishmael sees many other whalers from around the world on the streets of New Bedford and attends a service at a chapel  in
which the clergyman, Father Mapple, preaches a sermon on Jonah and the
whale and exhorts his listeners to obey the will of God, not the will of
wayward man. Jonah, an Old Testament prophet, abandoned his mission to
preach against wickedness at Nineveh and instead went to sea to escape
his destiny. When a powerful storm threatens his ship, he admits to the
crew members that he is the cause of it, for God is angry with him, and
they cast him overboard. A whale swallows him, holding him inside for three
days, then vomits him out after Jonah prays for deliverance and agrees
to do God’s bidding in Nineveh.
.........After Ishmael returns to the Spouter-Inn, he and Queequeg become partners and travel to Nantucket together to seek work on a whaler. At Nantucket–an island about 15 miles long and 3 to 6 miles wide–they put up at an inn called the Try Pots and satisfy their hunger eating delicious cod and clam chowder. Ishmael goes off alone and applies for work on the Pequod, a ship named for an American Indian people. After an interview with its co-owners, Captains Peleg and Bildad, Ishmael gets a job and then recommends Queequeg, an experienced harpooner, for work. Peleg and Bildad tell him Queequeg must appear in person for an interview. When Ishmael asks about the captain of the Pequod, they tell him his name is Ahab. Although Ahab is the name of an evil king in the Bible, Peleg says, Captain Ahab is a good man with a wife. .........When Queequeg arrives, Peleg and Bildad refuse to hire him because he is a heathen. But when Ishmael argues for religious tolerance and Queequeg demonstrates his extraordinary ability with a harpoon, Queequeg, too, gets a job. Shortly thereafter, Ishmael and Queequeg encounter a crazed man named Elijah, who asks them about their standing with the Almighty and speaks unsettling words about Ahab, whom he calls “Old Thunder.” Ahab lost a leg to a great whale and now walks on a prosthesis made of the bone of a whale’s jaw. Elijah says Ahab suffers from some malady, and he asks Ishmael whether he has bartered his soul to the devil to become part of the Pequod’s crew. .........After the ship takes on food and other supplies, it sets sail on Christmas Day for a three-year voyage. Ishmael is proud to be a whaler, for whaling is one of the noblest and most important industries, a bulwark of the world economy and a pathfinder for passenger and merchant ships. .........The first mate is an upright Nantucket Quaker named Starbuck, whose father and brother died at sea. Queequeg is to serve as his harpooner. The second mate is a carefree Cape Cod sailor named Stubb, backed up by an American Indian harpooner, Tashtego. The third mate, a resident of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, is feisty Flask, supported by a black African harpooner named Daggoo. .........Ishmael spends his first days of the voyage ruminating about Elijah’s ominous words and wondering about Ahab. When the captain finally appears on the quarterdeck–standing tall and fast and full of resolve, the tip of his ivory leg resting in a hole bored into the deck–he exhibits no sign of illness, as suggested by Elijah. Ishmael writes:
.........Ordinarily, Ahab avoided walking the deck when his men were sleeping lest the “reverberating crack and din of that bony step” disturb them. Once, however, when the men were resting below, he set to pacing from taffrail to mainmast. Stubb complained, suggesting that the captain muffle the sound of bone against wood with a wad of hemp or flax fibers. Ahab told Stubb to return “to thy nightly grave, where such as ye sleep between shrouds.” He added, “Down, dog, and kennel!” Stubb replied, “I will not tamely be called a dog, sir.” Ahab then unleashed the full fury of his tongue: "Then be called ten times a donkey, and a mule, and an ass, and begone, or I'll clear the world of thee!" When he advanced toward Stubb with menace in his eyes, Stubb retreated .........Ishmael, turning his attention to the great sea creatures he is hunting, provides the reader a busy technical description of the whale, which he insists is a fish rather than a mammal. He discusses the many varieties of whales, such as the Sperm, the Hump-Backed, the Fin-Back, and the Sulphur Bottom. Ishmael’s exposition on whales helps undergird his credibility as a knowledgeable narrator and confers on the novel an air of authenticity. .........Like other crew members, he must take his turn keeping watch high on the mast-head, which is manned at all times–from the beginning of the voyage to the end–even when the ship is outside whale waters. During his first watch on the mast-head, he is easily distracted, tending to daydream as he comes under the spell of the sprawling ocean before him. He acknowledges that he is not the best of lookouts. .........One day, while Ahab paces the quarterdeck, he assembles the crew and reveals his plan for the voyage: to run down and kill Moby Dick, the great white whale that tore off his leg. With a rousing speech, he wins over the crew and makes them swear death to Moby Dick. He nails a Spanish gold ounce to the main-mast and says, “Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw . . . shall have this gold ounce, my boys!” Only god-fearing Starbuck objects, saying it is wrong to take vengeance against a dumb sea creature. Ahab retorts that the whale is no dumb creature but a repository of the evil forces in the world–forces that weigh man down. He predicts that he will “dismember my dismemberer,” conferring on himself the roles of both prophet and fulfiller of the prophecy. .........Ishmael is excited by the prospect of chasing the whale. But he is also frightened. It is, after all, a hellish monster that has, according to sailors’ tales, sent men and ships to the deep while receiving harpoons into its flanks and the lobes of its tail. According to the stories, it is immortal, invulnerable, supernatural. Sightings of it have occurred in two parts of the world at the same time. Its whiteness is a sign of death, like the pallor of a dying man. .........While Ahab tracks the whale, using his memory and his navigating instruments, Ishmael busies himself weaving mats and daydreaming about the fates that are woven for men–and whether their free will has the power to overcome fate. Suddenly whales are sighted, boats are lowered, and the chase is on. Ahab rides in a boat with a hand-picked crew that includes an Asian named Fedallah (also called "the Parsee"), whom the other crew members were not aware was aboard the ship; he seems to have appeared out of nowhere. Nothing eventful happens during the outing, but crew members become suspicious of Fedallah. Stubb imagines that he is the devil in disguise, come to help Ahab kill the whale in return for Ahab’s soul. Later, Fedallah tells Ahab, “Ere thou couldst die on this voyage, two hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea; the first not made by mortal hands; and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in America." Ahab takes this as a good omen, meaning Moby Dick will die. .........Meanwhile, Ishmael writes his will and makes Queequeg his executor. .........A ship named Albatross approaches, but the Pequod passes by without slowing to exchange information. ((In sea lore, an albatross–a large gliding bird of the South Pacific–brings bad luck, as noted in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s great poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.") Ishmael then reviews how the world has depicted whales in words and pictures, discusses the allure and mystique of the sea, and reports on the sighting of a sea creature–thought to be Moby Dick–that turns out to be a squid. In the Indian Ocean, Stubb’s men kill a sperm whale, and Ishmael takes the opportunity to describe the skills and derring-do required by the typical harpooner. As Stubb and other crew members dine on whale meat after returning aboard, Ishmael reviews the history of the whale as a food. Ahab, meanwhile, thinks only of Moby Dick–and revenge. .........Another ship, the Jeroboam, approaches. The Pequod pulls alongside for a a gam (a conversation between ships) and learns that a Jeroboam crew member, Macey, was killed by Moby Dick. Stubb and Flask kill another whale, Queequeg rescues Tashtego after he falls overboard, Ishmael tells the reader more about whales, and the Pequod meets another ship, the Jungfrau, which has no news of Moby Dick. Ishmael then presents more information about whales, and the Pequod enters the Java Sea, where it outruns Malay pirates, takes another whale, and encounters another ship, the Rose-Bud. .........The Rose-Bud stinks from the carcasses of two whales alongside from which its crew is extracting oil. When Stubb convinces the French captain that the whales carry disease, the captain accepts Stubb’s offer to haul away one of the whales. After Stubb tows it free of the Rose-Bud, he uses his boat-spade to dig into the whale and claim a prize: ambergris. This waxy substance, found in the intestines of whales, brings a handsome price for its value as an ingredient in perfumes and cosmetics. Turks use it in cooking; wine makers use it to enhance the flavor of claret. Stubb takes six handfuls in all. .........During the next whale chase, one of the shipkeepers–crew members who man the ship while other crewmen row the lowered boats and wield harpoons–is pressed into service on one of the boats. He is a small man, a Negro named Pip, who is terrified by the churning sea and frantic battle for a whale. He jumps out, and a whale is lost when his mates rescue him. Warned never to repeat his cowardly behavior, he jumps out again when a second whale is chased–and this time, taken–and goes insane after he is rescued. .........The Pequod meets another ship, the Samuel Enderby, an English vessel under a Captain Boomer. When Ahab inquires about Moby Dick, Boomer shows him an arm prosthesis made of whale bone. Boomer lost his arm during a vain struggle against the great white whale, and he has no further desire to pursue the whale. Ahab, on the other hand, becomes all the more determined to track and kill the whale. He refuses to call off the relentless pursuit when sperm oil begins leaking from casks below. Meanwhile, Queequeg comes down with a fever and, believing he will die, has the ship’s carpenter build him a coffin in which he plans to float off. However, he suddenly recovers, saying he has decided not to die. .........After the Pequod enters the Pacific, Ahab orders the ship's blacksmith, Perth, to forge a special harpoon for Moby Dick, "one that a thousand yoke of fiends could not part, Perth; something that will stick in a whale like his own fin-bone." It is to be fashioned from the nail stubs of the shoes of racing horses. "These stubbs will weld together like glue from the melted bones of murderers," Ahab says. When the harpoon nears completion, Ahab gets the three non-Christian harpooners–Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo–to donate heathen blood with which to temper it. Then he baptizes the harpoon in the name of the devil, using Latin words: "Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!" (I do not baptize thee in the name of the father, but in the name of the devil!") .........When the Pequod comes abreast of another ship, the Bachelor, in the Pacific Ocean, its captain can provide no information about the whereabouts of Moby Dick, and the Pequod presses on, harvesting more whales and then encountering a typhoon. The ship fights for its life and survives the storm. Starbuck–fearing that Ahab’s mad quest will end in disaster–considers killing Ahab, but relents. .........After Ahab’s compass malfunctions, he guides the ship by instinct and rides tradewinds into equatorial waters, where it meets the Rachel. Its captain says he lost several whalers, including his son, while chasing Moby Dick. He begs Ahab to join the search for the lost men–even offering to pay for help–but Ahab presses on. The Pequod later meets another ship, the Delight, which has lost five men to Moby Dick. Ahab is undaunted. .........Finally, the Pequod sights the whale, and a fight to the death begins. On the third day of the battle, Starbuck pleads in vain with the captain to call off the chase. Ahab is adamant; the chase must go on. In the end, the charging whale destroys the lowered boats and the Pequod itself. Everyone except Ishmael dies. He survives by clinging to the coffin built for Queequeg, and the Rachel rescues him.
. Protagonist: Captain Ahab Antagonist: The Whale, Symbolizing the Forces Working Against Ahab . Ahab Captain of the Pequod Ishmael Pequod seaman and narrator of the action Starbuck First mate of the Pequod Stubb Secondmate of the Pequod Flask Third mate of the Pequod Peleg and Bildad Co-owners of the Pequod Father Mapple New Bedford clergyman who preaches a sermon about Jonah and the whale Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo Harpooners aboard the Pequod Peter Coffin Proprietor of the Spouter-Inn Elijah Crazed stranger with ominous words for Ishmael Pip (Pippin) Black shipkeeper who goes insane during a whale chase Fedallah Sinister crewmen whom the Pequod hands think has diabolical connections Perth The Pequod's blacksmith Others Various crewmen, captains of passing ships . Settings . The action early in the novel takes place in New Bedford and Nantucket, Mass. Later, the action takes place at sea on the Pequod, a weather-beaten ship, and on whaling boats sent out from the Pequod. The novel ends when the whale destroys the Pequod and another ship, the Rachel picks up Ishmael, who survived by floating on a coffin. .  . Moby Dick (actual title: Moby-Dick, or the Whale) is a novel of epic proportions with characteristics of Greek and Elizabethan stage tragedies. Melville completed the book at Arrowhead, Mass., where he lived for a while.Moby Dick is arguably the greatest sea novel ever written. Some critics also maintain that is the greatest American novel ever written. Publication
Information
. In literature a microcosm is a small world–a family, a workplace, a town, a school–with people of varying personalities and backgrounds, like the world at large. The Pequod is a microcosm, for its crew is made up of blacks and whites, heathens and Christians, the weak and the strong, the humble and the proud, the cowardly and the courageous. Melville apply the qualities and characteristics of the crew of this small world–bigotry, piety, greed, tolerance, and so on–to the world in general. . Portents, Prophecies, and Symbols Moby Dick is full
of auguries, warnings, divinations, and foreboding symbols. They are designed
to suggest the sinister direction of the novel and foreshadow its terrible
outcome. Consider the first three words of Chapter One: Call me Ishmael.
In the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament, Ishmael was the name of the
son of the Hebrew patriarch Abraham and Hagar, a servant of Abraham’s wife,
Sarah. After Sarah–long barren–gave birth to Isaac, she persuaded Abraham
to cast out Ishmael, who became a wanderer, the archetype of Melville’s
Ishmael. Other ominous signs include the name of the proprietor of the
Spouter-Inn, Peter Coffin, and the name of ship, Pequod,
on which Ishmael goes to sea. The Pequod derives its name from "Pequot,"
the name of a small band of American Indians of the Algonquian (or Algonkian)
language group. The Pequots lived on the east coast of the New World in
what is now Connecticut. When British expansionism provoked a war with
these Indians, the British killed many of them. Surviving Pequots were
later tracked down and killed, sold into slavery, or absorbed into other
tribes. By Herman Melville’s time, the Pequots had all but disappeared
from America. Thus, the word "Pequot" became associated with eventual death
and destruction. Melville changed the letter “t” to “d” in naming Ahab’s
ship. Like the name of Ahab’s ship, Ahab himself is a baleful symbol. Elijah,
the crazed stranger who confronts Ishmael before the Pequod sets
sail, calls Ahab “Old Thunder,” suggesting that he is a portent of storms
to come. Ishmael says the scar on Ahab’s face resembles the mark that lightning
might etch into a tree. Thus, Ahab becomes associated with violent, destructive
weather. He is also associated with evil, inasmuch as he is named after
a wicked king in the Old Testament who died in battle. The king's wife,
Jezebel, attempted to introduce the worship of the pagan god Baal in Israel
and establish the absolute power and authority of the king. It was the
Hebrew prophet Elijah (the namesake of Melville’s Elijah) who spoke against
the worship of Baal.
. Since ancient times, writers have often depicted aboriginal or uncivilized people as noble–untainted by the corrupt ways of civilization. Greek and Latin authors, such as Homer and Ovid, were sympathetic to some primitive peoples in their writings. In 1672, the English poet, critic and dramatist John Dryden coined the term noble savage in a play called The Conquest of Granada. Between 1760 and 1780, the French writer and philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau popularized the concept of the noble savage in his writings. In Moby Dick, Melville developed this motif with three “noble savages”: the harpooners Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo. For example, he depicts Queequeg–a tattooed savage who sells shrunken heads–as being more tolerant and benevolent than the civilized Christian whalers. . Influence of Other Playwrights . Melville read widely and drew upon his literary knowledge when constructing his novel. In some respects, Moby Dick resembles the tragedies of the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles. In Sophocles’ Theban plays, notably Oedipus Rex and Antigone, powerful rulers fall victim to a fatal character flaw, great pride (or hubris)–Oedipus in Oedipus Rex and Creon in Antigone. In Moby Dick, Ahab, the ruler of a ship, also falls victim to pride as he blasphemes God and arrogantly rejects the advice of others, believing to the end that he can defeat the bane of his existence, the great white whale. Melville’s novel also resembles Shakespeare’s Macbeth in that the development of the plot and the suspense that carries it along both depend on portents and prophecies. In Macbeth, it is the witches who make ominous pronouncements; in Moby Dick it is Elijah and others. Moby Dick has also been compared with Shakespeare's King Lear. . . The Number 3 appears to be significant in Moby Dick inasmuch as so many groupings of three occur in the novel. Consider, for example, the following: ......Three words: The first chapter opens with three words: Call me Ishmael. ......Three cities: Early in the novel, Ishmael goes from New York City to New Bedford and then to Nantucket. ......Three inns: Ishmael mentions three New Bedford inns (The Crossed Harpoons, the Sword-Fish, and the Spouter). ......Three-day ordeal: Ishmael hears a sermon about Jonah and the three days he spent inside a whale. ......Three ships: Ishmael selects the Pequod from among three ships going to sea. ......Three captains: Ishmael meets three captains (Peleg, Bildad, and Ahab). ......Three mates: The Pequod has three mates (Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask). ......Three harpooners: The Pequod has three main harpooners (Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo). ......Three-year voyage: The Pequod is on a scheduled three-year voyage. ......Three-person family: Ahab has a wife and a child. ......Three years on land: In his 40 years as a seaman, Ahab has spent only three years on land. ......Three punctures: In describing Moby Dick, Ahab says the whale has "three holes punctured in his starboard fluke." Starboard means on the right; fluke refers to a lobe on the tail. The puncture holes were caused by harpoons. ......Three-day struggle: The battle with Moby Dick lasts three days. .
. Herman Melville, who was born in New York City on Aug. 1, 1819, and died there on Sept. 28, 1891. His name was Herman Melvill until 1832, when the family added the final "e" to the name. He was one of eight children, four boys and four girls. Melville taught school briefly in Pittsfield, Mass., studied surveying, served as a cabin boy on a voyage to Liverpool, England, and in 1841 joined the crew of the whaling ship Acushnet for a voyage to the South Seas. He jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands and spent time there with the native people according to unconfirmed accounts. He also reportedly served on an Australian whaler, the Lucy Ann. Later, in Nantucket, Mass., he was hired as a harpooner on the Charles & Henry, then quit the ship in the Hawaiian Islands and signed on as a seaman with a frigate, the United States, and ended his sea career in 1844. His sea background, along with his extensive reading of the great works of literature, provided him the raw material for Moby Dick and other books, as well as short stories. .
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