Moby Dick Group

Question:

ira-ra
ira-ra
Student
Graduate School

What does Ishmael do whenever he finds himself growing “grim about the mouth" in Moby Dick?

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Posted by ira-ra on Wednesday October 21, 2009 at 10:18 AM and tagged with characters, ishmael, literature, moby dick.

Answers:


  1. jseligmann Teacher
    High School - 11th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    In one of the greatest first paragraphs ever written in the English language, Ishmael tells the reader of a frame of mind he gets into on occasion. I suppose one would call the mental condition depression, for it is filled with talk of gloom and November drizzle, of anger and coffins and funerals. And whenever Ishmael gets to feeling this way, when he's feeling "grim about the mouth," what is the surest antidote? He finds a ship and goes to sea. And he says it so well, let's hear it from him... when he feels dark or depressed in the ways enumerated...

    then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

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    Posted by jseligmann on Wednesday October 21, 2009 at 11:58 AM