Abstract
This paper explores the lived philosophy of Ishmael in Herman Melville’s epic, Moby-Dick, particularly as it contrasts with Captain Ahab. Furthermore, this paper examines how Ahab’s narcissism ushers him towards death, while Ishmael’s collectivism guides him towards life. While Ahab is obsessed with himself and his goal of killing Moby Dick, which leads to his own demise, Ishmael is focused on exploring people and their respective philosophies in order to express the infinite spiritual aspects of human life. Ishmael learns from his mistakes, listens to the perspectives of others, and searches for spirituality through various religious and secular means. The form of the novel mirrors its narrator’s wide and wandering curiosity, as Ishamel shares with the reader both the narrative story of the Pequod and worldly facts about the sperm whale. The novel’s form enhances Ishamel’s actions within the story, revealing a nuanced philosophy that values human connection and curiosity. While some scholars have made claims that Ishmael’s narrative style reflects his confusion or ambiguity, this paper argues that it is actually evidence of a life-sustaining philosophy, one which eventually saves Ishmael from being swallowed by the whirlpool caused by Ahab’s pride.
Highlights
The namesake of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the white whale being hunted by the vengeful Captain Ahab and his crew aboard the Pequod, is fundamentally difficult to define
This paper argues that, as the sole survivor, Ishmael’s way of life is presented as a successful remedy to Ahab’s selfdestructive affliction
Ahab’s solipsistic attitude, the idea that the self is the only thing that truly exists, becomes explicit in “The Doubloon,” the chapter in which Ishmael describes an Ecuadorian doubloon that has been hammered into the mast of the Pequod as a prize for the first crew member that sights the white whale
Summary
The namesake of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the white whale being hunted by the vengeful Captain Ahab and his crew aboard the Pequod, is fundamentally difficult to define. Ahab’s self-obsession results in the delusion that meaning is only found in relation to the self, and this belief produces a confidence in his own superiority He dismisses criticism and scrutiny from others, even, potentially, from God. Facing criticism from Starbuck regarding his monomaniacal hunt of Moby Dick, Ahab compares himself to the Christian god: “there is one God that is Lord over the earth, and one Captain that is lord over the Pequod” (517). As Ishmael describes, “The White Whale swam before [Ahab] as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them,” and “[h]e piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down” (200) Ahab, aware of his suffering and anger, does not learn to cope with these emotions and instead projects them onto the figure of Moby Dick. His self-centered grandeur has reached such a height that he truly cannot see anything but himself and his beliefs
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