UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE PERNAMBUCO​
CENTRO DE ARTES E COMUNICAÇÃO​
LITERATURA EM LÍNGUA INGLESA II​
PROFESSOR: YURI CARIBE​
STUDENT: BIANCA LIMA​
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Summary - Moby Dick​
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Melville's Moby Dick explores a journey around the ocean, seeking the sperm whale,
permeated by how people perceived an animal, and how ego and honor can infuriate and
blind men’s sight, specifically the urge to avenge. As Ishmael, the narrator defines and
describes whales, it is possible to follow the moment he comes to understand and appreciate
the various meanings a whale can have in history, in this novel, the white whale represents
not only an animal or an enemy but also a phenomenon.​
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The scenario boards sailors and the dream of a life at sea, by Ishmael’s point of view,
it is possible to accompany the desire for sailing, but also for giving up on life – as Ishmael
found on sailing another alternative than “throwing himself upon his sword”; although he
seemed anxious to board on a sail in a Nantucket whaler, he lost the call and had to stay few
nights in New Bedford. Trying to find a place to stay, after finding out that an inn was not
affordable, he stumbles into African Americans preaching about “the blackness of darkness”,
as it seems to be an allegory about how evil can be impenetrable, like the darkness, and can
not be easily understood by men – although God gave all the human beings the power of
comprehending and seeking for truth, it was up to them how they would explore this power,
besides things that they may face that could deceive and alienate their view. After meeting the
group of men, Ishmael found shelter in the Spouter-inn owned by Peter Coffin – the allegory
of death permeates the narrative in a subtle way.​
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Then, when he finds his way into the Spouter-inn, Ishmael observes an oil painting of
a whale attacking a ship– Is it the image of a premonition? – and after that, discovers that he
would have to share his room with Queequeg, a complexioned harpooner because the inn was
already filled up with wild mariners. He was really apprehensive about the idea of sharing a
room with a strange man that could be dangerous. After trying to sleep on a bench, Ishmael
gives up and decides to face the reality and gets to his room, and is reassured by Coffin that
Queequeg is fine. As Ishmael assumes his fragility and accepts the fact of another different
human being, rather than the people he is used to seeing, he concludes that is better to share
the bed with a “sober cannibal than a drunken Christian” (MELVILLE, 1851). It is possible to
see the affection that these two were creating between themselves, something that later will
enable them to anchor their confidence in each other.
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Everything flows around the marine atmosphere, chapels with homages to the ones
that were lost to the ocean, the number of people from different parts of the world wandering
around the city, everything contributed to the context and agreement on sailing to find
revenge, because that was what took over all the scenario, what could they do but take
revenge on the monstrous figure of a whale? ​
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Following the main idea of Mapple’s sermon, in which he talked about the story of
Jonah, the biblical figure that was swallowed by a whale, as a way to refer to the way men
could suffer from disobeying God’s commandments. This sermon, above all, is a reference
not only to a biblical story but also to the prophecy that would be very present in the novel.
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Ishmael takes some time to describe things because he is working on the
meaning/significance of everything; although he is not full of experience, he is a good
narrator, but the story is presented from his point of view. The two churches he visits
represent two types of religious approaches, as the black church preaching is about sharing
God’s words even though the environment is hostile (second sermon), while the other sermon
(Jonah and the whale) intended to explore how the truth is limited, and how men and women
should be confident enough to stand for themselves, but not forgetting God’s authority and
also obeying his and nature’s rules. As the story is told, it is clear that Ishmael and
Queequeg's relationship illustrates race relations and how he was not being held by his
prejudice – the diversity of people is, later on, shown in the selection of crewmates.
Queequeg tells his story, saying he was assigned to travel around the world and learn about
Christianity; after so many experiences, he found in whaling a new way of living, because his
contact with Christianity put him away from his original beliefs. The two plan on going to
Nantucket aboard a whaler. Queequeg won everyone’s respect by saving a man from a ferry
and bumpkin when it went out of control.
Describing the Pequod, the ship Ismael found while looking for a whaler to aboard, he
says it is a “cannibal of a craft” because it is adorned with whales’ parts, setting the direction
they were going to follow, death and killing. While approaching the ship, Ishmael meets
Bildad and Peleg, Quakers, and then he meets the captain who is named after a biblical king,
Ahab. Although he has a wife and a child at home to come back from sailing, Ahab shows
himself as moody and secretive about the white whale, since it took his leg in an attack. After
signing to work at the Pequod, Ishmael e Queequeg run into a man called Elijah, who told
something about a prophecy, about Ahab’s ship, he said it was dangerous and all the people
who abord the ship would die.
Melville’s trying to provoke a reaction to the 19th-century people happened through
Queequeg and Ishmael’s relation, as Ishmael embraces and respects Queequegs
beliefs/idolization, although Ishmael is presbyterian, he chooses to focus on brotherhood and
unity of religions. As we follow the prophet Elijah’s foreshadowing it is possible to assimilate
the various signs of dark imagery and biblical references, such as the biblical figure Ahab
being destructed, and so the captain Ahab's possible fate of dying in a shipwreck, besides this
the description of the ship is already an emblem of death.
As we observe Ahab’s obsession with the sperm whale and the consequences of the
attack he suffered, it is possible to recognize this is only the tip of the iceberg of Ahab’s
madness and quest for revenge. From now on, the main objective of the journey is stated: to
kill Moby Dick. As they travel around Africa and the Indian Ocean, led by Fedallah, the
Parsee, they catch some whales for the oil and try to track the sperm whale’s location by
getting information from the other ships they encounter. While seeking answers, they meet
Gabriel, who was a crewmate from the first boat, Jeroboam. He is a crazed man whose
prophecy announces the doom of the ones who were hunting the White Whale, and he had a
point. After the prophecy is thrown at them, the first tragedy happens: Tashtego, the
Harpooner, falls along with the whale’s head into the ocean, and Queequeg jumps in the
water to save him. Moby Dick’s head, at this point of the story, set a new subject about
cetology and life’s symbolism for Ishmael: after Tashtego’s falling, he acknowledged that the
sperm whale’s brain was small, and admired the aesthetic of the outer part of its head, linking
with the fact that Ishmael was always discussing the world known and the unknown, what is
inside and what is out. Having, as usual, contrasts, Ishmael disserts about evil vs. good, white
vs. black, reason vs. madness. The whale, and actually every happening, was an excuse for
him to focus and talk about various things – probably to convince the reader that he is a great
narrator and is worried about giving a full experience of what happened.
The crew argues about the journey’s purpose but Ahab does everything to defend his
point, plotting new steps in the quest for the whale. Ahab manipulates them using his
charming and persuasive façade and convinces the men that his quest was important,
although they try to get along with his fixation on killing the whale, reality kicks in.
Queequeg catches a cold and fever after removing casks from the hold. He seemed really sick
and near to death, recognizing his end, he asks the carpenter for a coffin, and here the story
meets up again with the symbolization of death and how it is almost omnipresent in their
daily life. Death is a subtle crewmate, an impostor aboard the ship, it is the real and invisible
enemy. But Moby Dick took Ahab’s leg and hurt his ego, that is what matters. After testing
the size of the coffin, Queequeg realizes he still has duties undone, so he puts the effort into
getting better, and he does. The coffin is now a buoy, and what is a buoy? Is it a lifesaver?
Later on, as Ahab’s obsession grew stronger, Fedallah also made a prophecy: Ahab
will see two hearses, and a rope made of hemp will be responsible for his death Ahab.
Fedallah would die first but still would serve as a guide for the captain. Taken by his
unstoppable madness, Ahab understands the prophecy like a good omen, because according
to him there were no hearses or hangings at sea. Despite that, one of the crewmates falls off
the masthead and drowns to death. Relying on the Captain’s faith to catch Moby Dick,
ignoring the tragedies that followed them through every meeting with the sperm whale, they
made their way to the fatal end. Who would have thought death was the consequence of
focusing on an animal as the incorporation of evil? Does Ahab know that death is the end?
No, he does not seem to acknowledge this, his life’s purpose is to end the killing whale.
Moby Dick is chased for three days as it is stroked by the harpooners. Moorings and
spears could not detain the whale, but they led the ship to be dragged by Moby Dick, it was
tied and dived in deep enough to sink the Pequod. Fedallah gets stuck in the harpoon line and
also drowns to death, the same happens, sometime after, to Ahab. Just like in the prophecy.
As the ship sank, a vortex was created, and it sucked everyone in. Ishmael was far enough to
use Queequeg’s coffin as a buoy, it was his lifesaver. Now, the contrast between life and death
is intertwined, the symbol of death saved Ishmael from dooming with the others. The coffin
once represented imminent death, and after it is understood by Queequeg as a way to remind
him of his home, it turned into a portrayal of hope, it renewed his spirit and then allowed
Ishmael to rebirth. He floats for days until he is rescued by a ship named Rachel.
Overall, Moby Dick is, obviously, just a whale living like an animal lives, however,
its symbolization changes from each point of view. To Ahab, it is the embodiment of evil; to
Samuel Enderby’s captain – also attacked by the whale, losing an arm to it – it was full of
sperm oil, but he recognized that the rational thing to do was to leave it alone. Immortal to
some, and a myth to others, the sperm whale was noticed and interpreted according to
people’s projections of their frustration, such as Ahab, who heavily personalized the whale to
the point he considered every act of the animal as proof of its malevolence. Although most of
them had a main interpretation of the whale’s image, Ishmael did not choose only one
meaning, to him Moby Dick was either the presence or the absence of color, the glory or the
damnation, the evil or good. It did not have a specific meaning, it was a higher power, it was
the manifestation of nature as an entity, above any religion or beliefs.
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REFERENCES
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. 1851. Edited by Herschel Parker and Harrison Hayford. New
York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.