Approaching the end of Moby-Dick, I had little question that the novel would end in a showdown between Ahab and the whale, since Ahab has focused so much energy and internal turmoil on his desire to kill the whale. Clearly, vengeance was at the forefront for him, but I was still surprised with Ahab’s statements in the chapter, “The Pequod Meets the Rachel.” Upon discovering that this ship had encountered the white whale, he exclaims, “where is he?-- Not killed!-- Not killed!” (396). This outburst demonstrates that Ahab is not so much concerned with the death of the whale as he is with actually contributing himself to the whale’s death. While this is a classic characteristic of vengeance, I was still surprised at his refusal to believe that anyone else might take credit for the whale’s killing.
Ahab’s obsession became even more twisted as the plot continued, but his construction of the harpoon using his crew members’ blood marks an even more heightened level of anguish for Ahab, but it was also the point at which I had no question that he, not the whale, was the monster (403).
However, in a manner typical of Melville’s style as I have observed it up to this point, he throws in an immediate complication that leads me to challenge my perspective on Ahab. In chapter 132, “The Symphony,” Ahab delivers to Starbuck a heart-wrenching account of his four decades of struggles at sea and the wife he has left behind. Ahab goes so far as to swear by land and the prospect of home, exclaiming, “by the green land; by the bright hearth stone” (406). Suddenly exposing his longing for home, why can’t he bring himself to heed so many others’ warnings, turn around, and return home, if he still has one? The internal anguish we’ve seen throughout the book suddenly adds another side to the coin here, but why couldn’t Melville add this substantial depth to Ahab’s character earlier in the story?
Good post. But if I had an answer to your last question, I would have to say that if some sort of humanizing trait that would break Ahab's stern facade, it would have made it less convincing for him to be obsessed and kind of a little left of center. The constant, seemingly boundless commitment to seeing the end of that whale would have seemed all the less real if he actually seemed human early on, instead in my head, this massive figure of all that is crazy captain. Plus, it made the scene where he does break down much more powerful.
ReplyDeleteChris Kiick