12A. Moby-Dick (1851), Chs. 40-42

Looking Glass Theatre production of Moby-Dick (2018), adapted and directed by David Catlin

Cosmopolitanism  

1. Chapter 40 also touches on cosmopolitanism. Every sailor is not known by their names and are instead referred to as the Old Manx Sailor, the Tahitian Sailor, the Spanish Sailor, and so on. These sailors come from different backgrounds and for a while get along well. At the end of this chapter, though, the Spanish Sailor antagonizes Daggoo, telling him his race is the “undeniable dark side of mankind—devilish dark”(110). Following that comment, the other sailors insist that the Spaniard must be drunk. While calling another person the “dark side of mankind” does not align with the novel’s apparent support of cosmopolitanism, the other sailors' insistence that a comment like that is rude and abnormal, does.

2. By including the singing of sea-shanties, the men of the ship are humanized, they desire fun and breaks from monotony just like you or I. In the introduction of the “row,” the same effect is accomplished; they scrap like boys of any name or occupation, they are tickled or offended just like anyone might be.

Ideology: Racial Attitudes

3. Chapter 42 is interesting because it talks about the association of white with purity. Ishmael lists many of these positive associations, but the rest of the chapter details how bad things, such as polar bears, sharks, and Moby Dick can be white. Ishmael also talks about how white people are viewed compared to non-white people, saying that the white superiority complex “applies to the human race itself, giving the white man ideal mastership over every dusky tribe” (116). This is Melville’s way of discussing race in his book, as it is quite obvious that so called “white superiority” is not real, as much as Melville’s oppressive society likes to think it is.

4. In response to the French sailor asking Pip to hold up the hoop for him to jump through, Tashtego scoffed, “That’s a white man; he calls that fun: humph! I save my sweat” (146). This gives the reader insight into Tashtego’s character and temperament. He seems to be a very serious, no-nonsense man who does not have time for silly games. It is also counter to the typical notion of white people being superior to other races. In a subtle way, Melville commented on the idea that whites were not necessarily intellectually superior to any other race, but rather that often they were less practical.

White = A Projecting Screen? A Tomb?
5. " ... in essence whiteness is not so much a colour as the visible absence of colour; and at the same time the concrete of all colours; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows—a colourless, all-colour of atheism from which we shrink? And when we consider that other theory of the natural philosophers, that all other earthly hues—every stately or lovely emblazoning—the sweet tinges of sunset skies and woods; yea, and the gilded velvets of butterflies, and the butterfly cheeks of young girls; all these are but subtile deceits, not actually inherent in substances, but only laid on from without. . . ” (Ch. 42). Though a long quote, the point is clear. Colors are a subtle deception of the mind, a trick of experience made through perception and thus; white itself, being the absence of color, serves only to reflect back to us that which does all of the perceiving and experiencing; the living creature, ourselves. The white whale symbolizes the terror of truly reflecting on your existence for what it is within the cosmos

6. Consider the rest of that quotation:  "... so that all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within..."

Editor's note (from the Norton Critical Edition):  "Nature's beauty, taken by pantheistic Romantics in Melville's time as the embodiment of a benevolent God, here is taken as the mere cosmetic of an inwardly dead prostitute or the paint of a godless universe--a white sepuchre ("charnel house").

Whale = God

7. The way Moby Dick is portrayed exceeds a terrifying whale as many sailors “declare Moby Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal “implying that no matter how many men try, they will not be able to defeat the whale. Ishmael even relays the belief that Moby Dick is “not for mortal man.” The growth of this tall tale reflects the human need to justify failure. If the sailors cannot conquer the whale, then surely there must be a “supernatural” element to it. There must be an “intelligent malignity” that prevents humans from killing the beast. By rationalizing the failure of capturing Moby Dick, the sailors and their loved ones feel better about the injuries and fatalities sustained from the expedition. It could be considered a coping mechanism. Ishmael calling the sailors “desperate hunters” supports this theory as it demonstrates the anxious need for the men to have lost to a creature of biblical proportions rather than a whale attempting to survive. Later on, Ishmael even says that Moby Dick can be seen as a “monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them."