Herman Melville
1851
Moby Dick
Melville
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1819-1891
Many jobs: bank clerk, teacher
Went to sea in 1841
Sailed the world, wrote books about it
Lived among Polynesian cannibals
19th CENTURY AMER. LIT
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Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe
Subject Matter
Challenges
Age of Reason  Romanticism/
Transcendentalism  Realism
Melville
• Read Shakespeare (and Hawthorne) and
grew dissatisfied with his books
• Wrote MOBY-DICK in 1851, dedicated it to
Hawthorne, who encouraged him to make
it an allegory
• Moby Dick not well received
• Continued to write until his death
• Suffered breakdown, lost jobs
• Died in 1891
Why a book about whaling?
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Very profitable-like oil industry today
Very American-we dominated this industry
Whales largest creatures on earth
Whale expeditions epic in nature
Every bit of whale used for somethingheating, lighting, clothing, perfume…
Is it a true story?
• Based on true story of The Essex
– Left Nantucket in 1820…storm and supposed
attack by a sperm whale sunk ship. Only a
few survivors
Why is it so long?
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Encyclopedic in scope
EVERYTHING is in here!
Epic
Etymology/Extracts: attempts to define
the whale
Themes (all alluded to in chapter
one!)
• Search for Truth
– “All men, by nature, desire to know” Aristotle
– “ungraspable phantom of life” (5)
Themes
• Monomania/hubris
– Obsession/pride
– “And still deeper the meaning of that story of
Narcissus, who because he could not grasp
the tormenting, mild image he saw in the
fountain, plunged into it and was drowned.
But that same image, we ourselves see in all
rivers and oceans. It is the image of the
ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the
key to it all” (3).
Themes
• Universality/Connectedness
“…and so the universal thump is
passed round, and all hands should rub
each other’s shoulder-blades, and be
content” (4)
Themes
• Fate vs. Free Will
– “this the invisible police officer of the Fates,
who has the constant surveillance of me, and
secretly dogs me, and influences me in some
unaccountable way-he can better answer than
any one else” (5)
Sea vs. Land
• “Meditation and water are wedded forever”
(2)
• “tied to counters, nailed to benches,
clinched to desks” (2)
Motifs-recurring images
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Whiteness
Mechanical
Religion
Transcendentalism
Counterparts
– Characters Ahab/Starbuck, Stubb/Flask
– Motifs: land/sea, good/evil, life/death…
* Ch. 1-22: Ishmael and Queequeg
• Ch. 23-45: Ahab and Moby Dick
• Ch. 45 – 72: The business of the
Pequod and the pursuit of the whale
• Ch. 73 – 105: Whales and whaling
• Ch. 106 – 135: The search and the
chase