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And who knows, the whale may even be superior to us, as "this great monster, to whom corporeal warmth is as indispensable as it is to man; how wonderful that he should be found at home, immersed to his lips for life in those Arctic waters! where, when seamen fall overboard, they are sometimes found, months afterwards, perpendicularly frozen into the hearts of fields of ice, as a fly is found glued in amber" (Chapter 68).
By treating Moby Dick as if the whale were an intelligent creature, Ahab overcomes the threat or fear of nothingness that all characters in the novel, indeed all human beings must grapple with. Ahab knows...
Although the whale is more physically powerful than a man, a warm-blooded beast that can life more effortlessly than even accomplished seamen in the water, Ahab will try to overcome it anyway, because it is warm-blooded and therefore like a man. Overcome nothingness, Ahab advises, however briefly, by acting with vengeance as if the world had meaning.
Works Cited
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Complete e-Text from the Online Library. 8 May 2007. http://www.online-literature.com/melville/mobydick
Works Cited
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Complete e-Text from the Online Library. 8 May 2007. http://www.online-literature.com/melville/mobydick
Moby Dick Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick has been read in countries and language from all over the world. It has been picked apart and analyzed from a plethora of analytical theories and contexts. In terms of the four functions of mythology, the story can be read in any perspective: mystical, cosmological, sociological, or pedagogical. Analysts and literary scholars could make the case that Moby Dick could be interpreted through any
Moby Dick or, The Whale is a book that can be read on a number of levels. On the surface it is an adventure story and a mine of information about whaling and the whaling industry. However, the novel also explores the depths of the human psyche and cardinal philosophical questions relating to the meaning of life, religion and good and evil. Sociologically, the novel explores the tension between enlightened
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