Moby
Dick
by:
Herman Melville
About
the author:
Herman
Melville
Born: Aug. 1, 1819,Manhattan, New York City
Died: Sept. 28, 1891
Professions: Banker, School
teacher, News reporter, Merchant sailor, Novelist, Poet
Works:
ü
Typee: A Peep at
Polynesian Life(1846)
ü
Omoo(1847)
ü
Mardi and a Voyage Thither(1849)
ü
Redburn(1849)
ü
White-Jacket; or The World in Man of War(1850)
ü
Moby Dick or The Whale(1851)
Moby Dick
Setting: Ocean
Number of chapters: 135
Characters:
ü
Ishmael
ü
Captain Ahab
ü
Moby Dick
ü
Starbuck
ü
Queequeg
ü
Stubb
ü
Tashtego
ü
Flask
ü
Daggoo
ü
Pip
ü
Fedallah
ü
Peleg
ü
Bildad
ü
Father Mapple
ü
Capt. Boomer
ü
Gabriel
Themes:
ü
Deceptiveness of fate- Many of the sailors believe in
prophecies and some even claim that they have the ability to tell what will
happen in the future.
ü
Camaraderie- The ship's crew is made up of different men
came from different races but despite of different cultures and beliefs, they
can mingle and cope up with each other.
Symbols:
ü
The Pequod- It is named after a Native American tribe in
Massachusetts that did not long survive the arrival of white men. It is a
symbol of doom.
ü
Moby Dick- It represents the destruction of the environment
by such hubristic expansion.
ü
Queequeg's coffin- It symbolizes death and life. When
Queequeg get ill, the coffin was made for him but when he recovered it became
the storage of his things. Also, there is a part where Ishmael was saved by the
coffin.
Plot:
The story started, “Call me Ishmael”. Ishmael, the narrator of the story,
explains that he goes to sea whenever he is depressed. In the port of New
Bedford, he stays at the Spouter Inn. He is at first frightened by Queequeg,
his tattooed, tomahawk-toting bedmate, who has been out selling shrunken heads.
Queequeg soon becomes Ishmael’s bosom friend.
Ishmael attends a service at the Whaleman’s Chapel where Father Mapple gives
a sermon about Jonah and the whale. The next day, Queequeg and Ishmael set out
for Nantucket where they sign onto a whaler. On the ferry ride to the island, a
young man mocks Queequeg. Later, this same young man falls overboard and is
saved by Queequeg.
While Queequeg performs his rites of Ramadan in the room at the Try Pots,
Ishmael signs onto the whaler Pequod owned by the Quaker
captains, Bildad and Peleg. The heathen Queequeg must prove his skill as a
harpooner before he is accepted.
As the two friends are about to board the Pequod, they are
accosted by the crazed Elijah, who utters vague warnings about Ahab and the
voyage. In the mist, they see four or five shadowy figures go aboard. The ship
sets sail on Christmas day. The chief mate, Starbuck, chooses Queequeg for his
harpooneer; the second mate, Stubb, chooses the Indian, Tashtego; and the third
mate, Flask, chooses the African, Daggoo.
Several days after the ship sets sail, Ahab finally appears on deck. His
appearance sends shivers through Ishmael. A white scar runs from his hairline,
over his face, and down his neck beneath his clothing. He stands upon an
artificial leg made of whale bone.
Ahab calls all men on deck. He hammers a gold doubloon to the mast and tells
the men that the first to spot Moby Dick, the white whale, will win the coin.
Ahab admits that it was Moby Dick that took off his leg.
When the first whale is sighted and the boats are lowered, the sailors are
surprised to see Ahab in his own boat with a mysterious crew who had been
hidden below deck. The exotic Fedallah is his harpooner. A squall comes up
during the chase. Ishmael's boat capsizes and is later nearly rammed by
the Pequod.
After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, the ship has its first of many gams,
or meetings with other ships. Ahab’s sole purpose in communicating with these
ships is to get news of Moby Dick. Several of the ships have lost men to the
whale. The Rachel has recently chased Moby Dick and is now
searching for a lost boat. The young son of the captain is in that boat, but
Ahab refuses to join the search. Starbuck confronts Ahab and tries to convince
him to abandon his mission to get his revenge on Moby Dick.
Stubb’s boat is the first to kill a whale. While Stubb eats his whale steak,
Fleece, the cook, delivers a sermon to the sharks. During the cleaning of
another whale, Tashtego falls into the tun, the forehead of the whale
containing the spermaceti. When the head breaks loose from the ship and falls
into the water, Tashtego is rescued by Queegueg. Pip, the timid black boy, is
temporarily abandoned in the sea during another whale chase which drives him to
madness. Queequeg, stricken with fever and believing death is near, has the
ship’s carpenter build him a coffin.
Ahab has the blacksmith fashion a special harpoon, tempered in the blood of
the heathen harpooners. During a storm, Ahab holds the harpoon above his head
and it is struck by lightning. Later, Ahab has a dream, which is interpreted by
Fedallah. The Parsee predicts that he will die before Ahab, that only hemp can
kill Ahab, and that before he dies, Ahab will see two hearses upon the sea.
At last, Moby Dick is sighted by Ahab. The chase lasts three days. Fedallah
dies, lashed by tangled lines to the body of the great beast. Ahab thrusts his
harpoon into Moby Dick, but his line runs afoul and catches him around the
neck; he is pulled down to the depths. Moby Dick smashes into the bow of
the Pequod, and Queequeg’s coffin shoots out of the whirlpool
created by the sinking ship. The only survivor, Ishmael, clings to this strange
life buoy and is later rescued.
