13A. Moby-Dick (1851), Chs. 44-46

Trailer from In the Heart of the Sea (2015). Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Chris Hemsworth.

Aesthetics and Ideology: Ahab as Chart (Fate, God, and Human Agency)

1. In chapter 44 of [Moby-Dick], Captain Ahab stands over a table in his cabin, studying charts of the seas and trying to figure out where to hunt for the white whale. His forehead is said to be marked by “some invisible pencil... tracing lines and courses upon” it, showing his deep concentration and dedication to finding the whale that rendered him a paraplegic.

Consider: If Ahab is a chart, who or what is writing on him with an invisible pencil?

Aesthetics: Plausibility

2. Chapter 44 gets back into much of the more scientific, detail-oriented style as Ishmael looks into how Ahab is tracking the whale down. The captain knew the “sets of all tides and currents,” and Ishmael even goes on to quote Lieutenant Maury who tried to “construct elaborate migratory charts of the sperm whale.” Ishmael seems to be trying to give a sense of legitimacy to his story, and he explicitly tries to argue this in chapter 45. He tries to get the reader to not simply view the story as a “hideous and intolerable allegory.” So there seems to be this odd tension of mystery with Moby Dick being called “ubiquitous and immense” a few chapters back, and then there is a purely rational approach given in chapters like the ones just handled.

3. He writes of multiple occasion over the last century and beyond in which ships have been sunk or struck by large whales, often thought to be Spermaceti. Among the featured ships is the Essex of Nantucket. This story is thought to be very influential in the creation of Moby-Dick and was undoubtedly a reference for Melville. Ishmael also comments on several great whales that he claims are famous in the world-wide whale-fishery, . . . which in some way seems to be some sort of proof that these fabled and legendary whales can and have existed.

What kind of agency to whales have?

4. I continue to find the speakers adamance on the malevolent or unearthly nature of the sperm whale to be ironic. The writing specifically states “The sperm whale is in some cases sufficiently powerful, knowing, and judiciously malicious” (Ch. 45). Then it shortly after delivers two examples in detail: A sperm whale destroying a ship in the defense of its pod, and a romanticized incident involving a whale bumping a ship with a haughty commodore and his whale hunting associates. The portrayal of the sperm whale as a being of malice or evil and worthy of unwarranted fear seems unjustified, as it itself never attacks ‘malevolently’ unprovoked ...

The Real Danger: Human or Monster?

5. Ishmael seems to change his tune a bit by appearing to suggest that it is Ahab’s . . . hysteria over revenge on this whale could be more dangerous [than] the notion of what might occur once he finds Moby Dick. As the narrator puts it, “God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates.” (Ch. 44).

6. What is Ahab’s "fire’"? My best guess is that it has something to do with genuine free will, in competition with fate, destiny and "the gods."

Ahab Origins: Milton (Satan in Paradise Lost), Shelley (Frankenstein), Goethe (Prometheus)

7. In Melville: His World and His Work, Andrew Delbanco suggests that in Moby-Dick, there are echoes of Milton, as when Melville proclaims in a review of Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse that it is "better to fail in originality, than to succeed in imitation" (Satan, in Paradise Lost [1667] declares it 'Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav'n)"

There are echoes of Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), which Delbanco describes as "Mary Shelley's novel about an errant genius who hunts down the quasi-human monster he has created after it has turned against him and murdered the woman he loves. Having tracked the creature to the icy North, Frankenstein commandeers a scientific expeditionary ship headed to the Arctic and turns it inot an instrucment of his private vengeance" (Delbanco)

There are echoes of "Goethe's musings on the 'Titanic, gigantic, heaven-storming' Prometheus" in Goethe's Autobiography, From my Life: Poetry and Truth (1833).

Ahab's Mental Health: Trances of Torments

8. Melville’s discussions about Ahab’s mental stability in Chapter 44 stuck out to me.... Ahab spends so much time tracking every move that Moby Dick makes to no avail, which causes Melville to comment “Ah, God! What trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachievable revengeful desire.” The idea of Ahab enduring “trances of torments” makes his situation almost seem like Ishmael is sympathetic towards a sadly vengeful man instead of a maniacal captain. Chapter 44 made me feel some sort of sympathy toward Ahab as well because of the clear damage that his obsession is causing him. Melville describes the way that Ahab retires to his hammock and later bursts from it at another being that is said to be Ahab’s “tormented spirit” attempting to escape its captivity while Ahab’s mind is at rest. At the end of the chapter, Melville compares Ahab to ... Prometheus, saying that Ahab’s thoughts have created a creature inside of him; “a vulture that feeds upon the heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates.” I do not think Melville was trying to make a notion or comment about mental illness, but I believe that this is a perfect depiction of how mental illness can dictate every aspect of your life and leave you feeling like you are being held captive and tortured by your own mind

Melville’s discussions about Ahab’s mental stability in Chapter 44 stuck out to me significantly in this assigned reading. Ahab spends so much time tracking every move that Moby Dick makes to no avail, which causes Melville to comment “Ah, God! What trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachievable revengeful desire.” the idea of Ahab enduring “trances of torments” makes his situation almost seem like Ishmael is sympathetic towards a sadly vengeful man instead of a maniacal captain. Chapter 44 made me feel some sort of sympathy toward Ahab as well because of the clear damage that his obsession is causing him. Melville describes the way that Ahab retires to his hammock and later bursts from it at another being that is said to be Ahab’s “tormented spirit” attempting to escape its captivity while Ahab’s mind is at rest. At the end of the chapter, Melville compares Ahab to the myth of Prometheus, saying that Ahab’s thoughts have created a creature inside of him; “a vulture that feeds upon the heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates.” I do not think Melville was trying to make a notion or comment about mental illness, but I believe that this is a perfect depiction of how mental illness can dictate every aspect of your life and leave you feeling like you are being held captive and tortured by your own mind.