Moby Dick | The Symbol of the Whale

In the following essay, R. Moore explores the whale as a symbol in Moby Dick and the meanings associated with this symbolic motif.

As many commentators have pointed out, Moby Dick is first and foremost a naturalistic story of whale-hunting. There are careful technical descriptions about whaling and precise details are enumerated on everything from the whales themselves to the men that pursue them. But beyond the surface account, Melville has created a story with another level of meaning. This is not to suggest that the book should be read as purely symbolic. As Denham Sutcliffe explains, “It is not that things ‘stand for’ something else; they are inexorably themselves, but they begin to...

[The entire page is 1469 words long]

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