11A. Moby-Dick (1851), Chs. 37-39

The Iron Crown of Lombardy, in the Cathedral of Monza (Italy)

ENCOUNTERS

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

Aesthetics: Poetry

1. In chapter 37 of Moby-Dick, Ahab is sitting by a window gazing at the sunset. It seems that we are reading his innermost thoughts. “Yonder, by the ever-brimming goblet’s rim, the warm waves blush like wine. The gold brow plumbs the blue. The diver sun-slow dived from noon, -goes down; my soul mounts up!” While this is a description of Ahab’s admiration of the setting sun, it has such a poetic sense to it. Words like "brimming," "warm," "blush," "gold," and "blue" paint beautiful images in the mind of the reader. He uses a very detailed description to create the images, and it is almost melancholy. His use of alliteration in the phrase, “warm waves blush like wine” gives the reading a more poetic and pleasing sound, while also furthering the development of those images.

Ahab's crown

2. I was confused by the phrase “Iron Crown of Lombardy.” I do not understand what this phrase means, and upon looking it up, I could not find a meaning for the phrase.

• From the Norton Critical Edition:  "Crown used at the coronation of Holy Roman emperors, said to contain a nail from the cross on which Jesus was crucified" (136).
  
  On May 26, 1805, Napoleon "was crowned King of Italy by the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, who presented him with the Iron Crown of Lombardy."

3. [Ahab's]crown simultaneously holds religious significance for its status as a reliquary while representing the wealth and beauty of the region of Lombardy, but it also draws more comparison to Ahab as the thorned-crown wearing martyr we all recognize from the bible. Shortly after, he states that he himself is a “demoniac “and that he’ll “dismember the dismemberer”, which is an allusion to the classic ‘eye for an eye’ (243). So, all this together, including his ritual in the previous chapter, begs a question, is Ahab a representation of Jesus, the Antichrist, or is he just a bit histrionic?

Aesthetics: Stylistic Variation

4. Moby-Dick is a novel, cetology textbook, epic poem,and now a play. These short chapters are detailed with stage directions, as chapter 37 opens with,“The cabin; by the stern windows; Ahab sitting alone, and gazing out.” Chapter 39 even throws in “Aside” while Stubb talks with Starbuck. I’m really not sure why Melville does this.

Aesthetics: Three Perspectives

5. Continuing to use stage directions, Melville presents the reader with three different monologues: Ahab in chapter 37, Starbuck in chapter 38, and Stubb in chapter 39. Each of these characters have their own views of the whaling trip.

6. Melville’s choice to give us three successive and succinct chapters from Ahab, Starbuck and Stubb provided plenty of context between the lines to fill the empty space by implying a relationship between the trio’s beliefs by creating short and stark contrast in their internal monologues

Ahab: Mad or Heroic?

7. . . . Captain Ahab is vehement about Moby Dick because his destruction is how Ahab can take back control of his own destiny. Being a previous victim of prophecy himself, he decides his path back to personal power lies in being the [prophet]; “Now, then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That’s more than ye, ye great gods, ever were.”

8. Ahab. . . describing himself as “demoniac”  . . .  seems like a resolution to the debate of if Ahab is a Christ-like figure or if he is the antichrist. It seems like he thinks himself to be the antichrist and above all possible higher powers because of the way he says, “Now, then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That’s more than ye, ye great gods, ever were[,"] (Ch. 37) stating that he has created his own prophesy of extinguishing Moby Dick which he intends to carry out . . . himself.

9. Ahab is showing his determination to “dismember [his] dismemberer,” saying also “The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails whereon my soul is grooved to run.” 

Consider: Ahab here is compared to a train, which, at the time, was a new marvel of human engineering.

10. Ahab describes himself as “mad” and “demoniac” . . .  implying that he will stop at nothing to enact his revenge for it is now destiny. Ahab defining himself as “madness maddened” during his soliloquy further supports this idea. 

11. Starbuck also  believes Ahab to be “a madman" and “insufferable.”

12. Captain Ahab is being very angsty. He’s sitting in the cabin of the ship, staring out the window. He is monolonging to himself about revenging his leg. He says “This lovely light, it lights not me; all loveliness is anguish to me, since I can ne’er enjoy.” This is such contrasting statement to Stubb’s “Because a laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer; and come what will, one comfort’s always left—that unfailing comfort is, it’s all predestinated” in chapter 39. 

Starbuck: Loyalty vs. Reason

13. Starbuck seems to be complaining about everything and everyone. First he complains about Ahab being a mad-man, and is basically annoyed with his revenge fantasies. Then he complains about the crew being a “heathen crew that have small touch of human mothers in them”.

14. Starbuck fears what might come, yet is resolved to follow Ahab’s rule. He does not understand the “infernal orgies” of the rest of the crew; instead he wrestles through the “grim futures.”

15. . . . unlike Ahab [Starbuck] does not entirely reject [his fate], though he does still choose to act measuredly against it, hoping for an eventual "change in the water" ("Yet is there hope. Time and tide flow wide").

16. I thought it was also interesting that Melville [/Starbuck] included the term “sharkish sea.” Why did Melville[/Starbuck] use this term when they are on the hunt for a whale?

17. Starbuck confesses that even though Ahab is horrible, he will not be able to rebel or flee from the captain, painting a gloomy destiny similar to Ahab’s in the previous chapter.

18. Although Starbuck struggles to understand Ahab’s intensions, it is clear he feels obligated by duty and commitment to see the mission through. He claims, “he drilled deep down and blasted all my reason out of me! I think I see his impious end; but feel that I must help him to it.” To me, this claim shows us an aspect of Starbuck’s character not yet seen; he seems willing, although cautiously, to forsake his own safety and knowledge to aid his captain in his revenge. 

Stubb: Cheerful Resignation

19. Stubbs’s perspective is completely different in tone from the two previous men. While Stubb does believe that everything is “predestinated” his monologue is much more cheerful as he sings and describes himself as “gay as a frigate’s pennant.”

20. Stubb . .  says, “that unfailing comfort is, it’s all predestinated.” He’s referring to his fate aboard the Pequod andlife in general. Unlike Starbuck, who is disgusted by Ahab’s motive for hunting Moby Dick, Stubb is content with his life aboard the Pequod. But he’s also drunk, so it could just be that.

Predestination and Human Agency

21. These three differing views function as commentary on the Calvinist belief of predestination, the belief that the Christian god knows everything that will happen. . . .  Starbuck and Stubbs believe in predestination,  although their attitudes towards it differ. Stubb finds comfort in the idea because he has trust that everything will work out while [Starbuck] is bitter end the voyage will inevitably face. On the other hand, Ahab rejects the idea of predestination. He believes that his destiny was supposed to be being killed by the whale that took his leg, but he survived instead. He wants to take his destiny away from God and put it in his own hands. This may explain why Moby Dick may be equated to God in the novel, since Ahab believes God's will was to kill him that fateful day