Moby Dick (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Herman Melville
- First Published: 1851
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Adventure
- Time of Work: Early nineteenth century
- Setting: The high seas
- Genres: Long fiction, Adventure, Sea story
- Subjects: Nature, Nineteenth century, Antiheroes, Ships, Sailing or sailors, Amputation, amputees, or prosthetics, Sea or seafaring life, Romanticism, Tattoos, Whales or whaling
- Locales: Boston, MA, Oceans, Nantucket Island
Characters Discussed
Ishmael, a philosophical young schoolmaster and sometime sailor who seeks the sea when he becomes restless, gloomy, and soured on the world. With a newfound friend, Queequeg, a harpooner from the South Seas, he signs aboard the whaler Pequod as a seaman. Queequeg is the only person on the ship to whom he is emotionally and spiritually close, and this closeness is, after the initial establishment of their friendship, implied rather than detailed. Otherwise, Ishmael does a seaman’s work, observes and listens to his shipmates, and keeps his own...
[The entire page is 1438 words long]
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