7A. Moby-Dick (1851), Chs. 19-21

 

"Jezebel and Ahab met by Elijah" (1862) by Frederic Leighton

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ENCOUNTERS

Numbered responses are by ECU students.
Quotations are in red.
Italics indicate instructor comments and questions.

Aesthetics: Suspense

1. The way the book helps add suspense for the audience is by delaying the meeting of Ahab. All the audience has learned about him is hearsay, some of which is very unreliable. The audience knows nothing about the “prophet”, so there is no reason to trust his word. Even at the end of chapter 21, the day has arrived for the ship to set out, and Ahab remains mysterious to the reader, “invisibly enshrined within his cabin.”

2. Elijah is introduced in the chapter titled “The Prophet[.]” He apparently talks like a crazy person, because Ishmael repeatedly says so. What intrigues me most is the way that Elijah talks about Captain Ahab. Statements like “Look ye; when Captain Ahab is all right, then this left arm of mine will be all right; not before” or “And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage, according to the prophecy” give me such an uneasy feeling. I think Melville achieved this uneasiness masterfully. He automatically gave us reason to be [leery] of Elijah by making him not follow “normal” conversation manners. Also, since Ishmael does not trust Elijah, we also shouldn’t trust him.

3. Chapters 19-21 of Moby-Dick introduce a mysterious character named Elijah, which is a very odd name for such an enigmatic character. We first meet him when he inquires of Ishmael and Queequeg whether or not they are shipmates on the Pequod. He then sporadically comes back into the narrative at very odd intervals, saying very odd things.

4. Elijah in the Bible was a prophet who predicted the destruction of King Ahab.

The Missing Seamen

5. Ishmael thinks he spots some sailors running to the ship, and thinking that they might be preparing to leave, Ishmael and Queequeg follow, but out pops Elijah. He asks Ishmael and Queequeg if they saw any men running to the ship, to which they say yes. Elijah then mysteriously leaves. What’s weird about this is that upon arriving at the ship, Ishmael and Queequeg are surprised to find no one but a rigger fast asleep. Why did Elijah ask Ishmael if he saw people running to the ship if no one was running to the ship?

Ahab as Jesus?

6. “But nothing about that thing that happened to him off Cape Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for three days and nights; nothing about that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa?—heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver calabash he spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage, according to the prophecy” (Melville). There are several thoughts which bubble to the surface at this quote, the most reliable association being that of Captain Ahab lying dead for three days and three nights with that of Jesus. Surely, this has to be an intentional parallel, and we won’t understand what context this parallel has until we see more of Captain Ahab.

Human Agency?

7. While Elijah is described as someone who “has broken loose from somewhere” implying that he is insane, his earnest nature makes his ramblings more worrisome. Elijah mentions horrific incidents surrounding the ship and Captain Ahab, telling Ishmael and Queequeg “what’s signed is signed” and “God pity ‘em [the sailors]” suggesting that the two men are at risk while sailing with Captain Ahab. 

8. An interesting note here though is the fact that this man doesn’t appear to warn them until after it’s too late. This raises the question, was Melville trying to show that at this point in the story, Ishmael and Queequeg have already past a point of return and fate it not on their side.

Self-Awareness/Self-Delusion
9. “...when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself”

Humor (People are Furniture? Bodies are Wagons?)

10. In chapter 21 of Moby-Dick, Ishmael and Queequeg are found once again in a hilarious situation. After climbing aboard the ship and finding only a sleeping rigger, they decided to sit down and share a pipe together. Ishmael sat at the feet of the man, and Queequeg decided to go for a more unusual seating arrangement, true to his nature. “He put his hand upon the sleeper’s rear, as though feeling if it was soft enough; and then, without more ado, sat quietly down there.” Queequeg wanted to make sure his “seat” was comfortable, so he felt up a random shipmate’s bottom. Just squeezed it like it was a couch cushion, as if it were nothing to him. This part made me laugh aloud, but I was also dumbfounded that Melville added such a bizarre scene to his book.
". . . Queequeg gave me to understand that, in his land, owing to the absence of settees and sofas of all sorts, the king, chiefs, and great people generally, were in the custom of fattening some of the lower orders for ottomans; and to furnish a house comfortably in that respect, you had only to buy up eight or ten lazy fellows, and lay them round in the piers and alcoves. Besides, it was very convenient on an excursion, much better than those garden-chairs which are convertible into walking sticks" (87)

Ishmael says to Queequeg:  "get off, Queequeg, you are heavy, it's grinding the face of the poor."
Note from Moby-Dick, Third Norton Critical edition, edited by Herschel Parker: "When Queequeg calls the sleeper's buttocks his 'face' (compare the modern use of cheeks), Ishmael mockingly accuses him of oppression." In so doing, Melville (and Ishmael) make oblique reference to the Bible, Isaiah 3.15:  "What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces and grind the faces of the poor? said the Lord God of hosts."  According to Parker, "This use of biblical phrases in jocular contexts angered some reviewers, but may reflect Melville's saturation in biblical language rather than disrespect toward the Bible" (87).