Hubris and Obsession in Melville's Moby-Dick

Introduction: Ahab's Wounded Pride

In Moby-Dick, Herman Melville tells a story of one man's all-consuming anger. Captain Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, is outraged because a great white whale caused him to lose his leg. Although his leg is healing, the wounds to Captain Ahab's enormous ego fester. Ahab becomes obsessed with killing the whale, acting as though the animal deliberately insulted him. Ahab is clearly a strong and courageous man — he possesses great strength of will and tremendous self-reliance. Unfortunately, he is also rigid and inflexible.

Setting himself above both God and nature, Ahab has taken the accident so personally that his obsession with killing the whale he calls "Moby-Dick" borders on insanity. The second time Ahab tangles with the whale, not only will he die, but his ship will be destroyed as well. Only one person — the narrator, Ishmael — will live to tell the story of what happened to the Pequod.

Ishmael's Voyage and Early Omens

In the story, the narrator Ishmael signs on to a whaling ship, expecting to participate in a hunt for the lucrative whale oil that makes the dangerous job worth the risk. Instead, the crew discovers that the captain intends to use the ship to avenge himself against the whale that took his leg. He nails a gold coin to the mast and uses liquor as an additional motivation.

The reader does not realize at first just how dangerous the voyage is going to be, although Melville provides several clues. For instance, the manager of the lodging house where Ishmael sleeps before he sets sail is named "Coffin." Ishmael also attends a church service before departing, where the preacher, Father Mapple, says: "Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty… who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale… whose good name is more to him than goodness!" Melville has already warned us about Ahab's instability — Ahab is more concerned with his "good name" as a fully functional, non-disabled person than with actual goodness.

This is demonstrated later in the book when Ahab comes across a ship whose captain has lost his son at sea. Upon learning that Moby-Dick caused the boy to be lost, Ahab abandons any thought of helping search for the child and instead sails off in pursuit of the whale. Ahab did not have to forfeit such an important part of his humanity when he lost his leg, but he took the attack so personally that he became consumed with revenge — so consumed that he could not spare a moment to join the search for a boy lost at sea.

Ahab's Obsession and the Crew's Complicity

Ahab tells his officers and crew: "…It was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye," he shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, "like that of a heart-stricken moose; 'Aye, aye! It was that accursed white whale that razed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for ever and a day… I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up." (pp. 160–161)

If Captain Ahab did not hold such absolute power, the crew might have been tempted to dismiss his vendetta. But the captain's authority is total. He bribes the men with the promise of gold for whoever first spots the whale, and the crew falls in line. As an exploration of the novel's central themes, this moment encapsulates how Ahab converts personal grievance into collective fate.