Shyanne Miles
Mrs. Vogt
AP Language
18 May 2010
Moby Dick Analysis
“They call me Ishmael” the famous opening line of Herman Melville’s
Moby Dick introduces a character which acts as the center of a major biblical
allusion through out the novel. Melville also pulled other characters from the bible
such as Elijah and Ahab to give way to several allusions and maintain the
overlying theme.
Ishmael was made the name of the main character as a reference to the
outcast in Genesis who is Abraham’s and his slave Hagar’s son. In the Bible
Ishmael was sent away after Sarah, Abraham’s wife, gave birth and he was no
longer needed. Throughout the novel Ishmael is portrayed as alone and lost. He
seeks the voyage on the land because of a feeling of alienation from human
society. In the last line of the book, Ishmael also refers to himself symbolically as
an orphan, which furthers Melville’s initial allusion.
Elijah, the first sailor Ishmael and Queequeg meet, was named after the
biblical prophet. He relates to the allusion in that he questions the two men’s
decision to come aboard the Pequod and foretells their future on the boat. Elijah
warns the men of the Captains madness, but Ishmael and Queequeg fail to
adhere to his advice.
Ahab, whose name comes directly from the bible in 1 Kings, is the
tyrannical captain of the Pequod who is driven by a monomaniacal desire to kill
Moby Dick, the whale that maimed him on the previous whaling voyage. Ahab
continues to represent the biblical allusion when he ultimately dooms himself and
his ship by his obsession with Moby Dick. During the final chase, Ahab hurls his
final harpoon while yelling his now-famous revenge line “... to the last I grapple
with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at
thee”.
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick maintains a powerful and metaphorical plot
through a biblical allusion of not only Ishmael but Elijah and Ahab as well. By
reviving characters from the Bible Melville, Melville allowed the novel to have
more meaning and correctly produce the point he wanted his audience to see.