Dec 25, 2009

Moby Dick | Characters

Captain Ahab
Introduced by Captain Peleg as “a grand, ungodly, godlike man,” the reader learns two things about Ahab, captain of the Pequod in Moby-Dick: Ahab was orphaned when he was twelve months old, and one of his legs was lost as a result of his most recent whaling voyage. The wound is so fresh that the stump is still bleeding. However, it is some time before Ishmael is able to verify this. Ahab does not make a proper appearance in the book until Chapter 28. The reader finds him standing upon his quarter-deck, looking “like a man cut...