Moby-Dick

The central theme of Moby-Dick is the destructive obsession with revenge, embodied by Captain Ahab's relentless pursuit of the white whale, Moby Dick. This obsession leads to the downfall of Ahab and...

Moby-Dick employs numerous literary devices, prominently allusions, similes, and alliteration. Biblical allusions include names like Captain Ahab and Ishmael. Similes enhance imagery, as seen in...

The major conflict in Moby-Dick is Captain Ahab's obsessive quest to kill the white whale, Moby Dick, which symbolizes his struggle against fate and nature. Ahab, the protagonist, is driven by...

Herman Melville's religious views in Moby Dick are complex and reflected through his characters. Melville perceives no "heavenly city" or "perfectibility of man," and Ahab's defiance of God,...

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville employs various figures of speech, including metaphors, similes, and personification. The whale, Moby Dick, is a central metaphor for the elusive and often destructive...

In Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab is driven by an obsessive desire for revenge against the white whale, Moby Dick, which cost him his leg. His single-minded pursuit leads him to disregard the safety of his...

The owners are Quaker businessmen named Bildad and Peleg. They are both strict owners and tell Ishmael about Captain Ahab. Although the Quakers were pacifists and whaling was an extremely violent...

Most individuals who were living at the time of Captain Ahab and who were religious would have believed that blasphemy was a mortal sin, punishable by condemnation to the everlasting fire of hell....

The climax of Moby-Dick occurs when Captain Ahab finally encounters the white whale, Moby Dick, leading to a dramatic and deadly confrontation. The resolution follows as the Pequod is destroyed, and...

In Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab offers a gold doubloon as a reward for the first crew member who sights the white whale, Moby Dick. This reward symbolizes Ahab's obsession and serves to motivate the crew...

Ishmael survives in Moby-Dick due to his role as the narrator, which requires him to live to tell the tale. Additionally, his open-mindedness and adaptability help him endure the catastrophic events...

It depends on what kind of story you want to tell. Ishmael's letter could be about an amusing anecdote in the life of a whaler, or it could be a dramatic tale of tragedy and survival. There are...

Starbuck represents a kind of rationality, and conventional Christian morality, in contrast to Ahab's personal revenge-centered worldview. Starbuck is the one who is able to question Ahab's quest to...

Moby-Dick incorporates epic romance elements through its grand and adventurous narrative, the heroic quest of Captain Ahab, and the symbolic struggle against the whale, Moby Dick. The novel portrays...

If by “events” you mean major plot points, one such event could be Ishmael’s shipping aboard the Pequod in chapter 16—Ishmael has made friends with Quequeg, the savage harpooneer, and Quequeg is...

The preternatural elements in Moby Dick are numerous unknown forces that exist outside of the realm of nature. They are images, beings, objects, and symbols that are so far removed from the normal...

The kind of figure of speech in this quote from Moby Dick is personification. This is where one attributes human characteristics to non-human objects. In this particular case, the object in question...

The first attempt to catch a whale takes place in chapter 48 of Moby Dick. It is unsuccessful largely because those in Starbuck's boat don't properly guess where the whale will surface. It comes up...

I pity Ahab for his tragic quest.

Moby Dick serves as an allegory for democracy, racial diversity, and biblical themes. The Pequod's diverse crew symbolizes a democratic society, while Captain Ahab's monomaniacal quest reflects...

The action scenes at sea form the core of some of the most dramatic chapters of Moby Dick. After the Pequod has hunted and killed a whale, chapter 78 describes the horror of Tashtego falling into its...

Ishmael, a crewmember on the Pequod and narrator of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, believes that the sea offers him an escape and refuge from the cares of the world and from his own anti-social and...

The struggle between Ahab and the whale in Moby-Dick symbolizes humanity's struggle to understand life's mysteries. Ahab's obsessive pursuit of the whale represents mankind's relentless quest for...

Captain Ahab and Ishmael in Moby-Dick have contrasting characteristics and perceptions. Ahab is obsessive, vengeful, and single-mindedly driven by his quest to kill the white whale, Moby Dick. In...

In Moby Dick by Herman Melville, there are motifs, symbols and themes. The sea is a motif that runs throughout the story. A motif is defined as a recurring idea or image that is a single word or...

The similarities between Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, and the story of Jonah in the Bible center around the whale, and the faith of the two protagonists. In the story of Moby Dick, the...

The first stories that men shared happened on water.  The seat of civilizations were founded there, on rivers and ports, and their navies spread influence far and wide.  The Phoenicians...

The phrase “draught of a draught” implies that the structure of Moby-Dick is a bit of an improvisation, invented as Melville went along rather than pre-planned before he began writing.

The characters in Moby Dick interact closely with nature, as per the ideology of transcendentalists, like Thoreau. But the end result, for them, is very different. Far from finding peace and...

Moby Dick is a novel by Herman Melville that follows Captain Ahab's obsessive quest to kill the giant white whale, Moby Dick, which had previously maimed him. Key elements include themes of revenge,...

While it is possible to come up with a Freudian reading of Moby Dick, such an approach would be less interesting than some other approaches.

In Chapter XXXVI, Ahab says, "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.  And this is what ye have...

In a very old but still relevant article titled, "A Theory of Moby Dick," author William S. Gleim argues that for Ahab, "the only escape from the torture of consciousness, as he felt it, was...

Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick is narrated in first person by Ishmael. Interestingly, Ishmael opens the book from a narrator's perspective looking back on the past, as we see in the phrase,...

Many scholars suggest that the color white symbolizes Ishmael's search for spiritual truth. White is a color usually associated with innocence and purity, so it is unusual that the white whale...

Ishmael in Moby-Dick develops as a thoughtful and observant character, embodying curiosity and open-mindedness. His reflective nature and philosophical outlook on life are evident as he narrates the...

On the whole, one could say that Ishmael in Moby Dick is not a reliable character. This is mainly because he introduces himself by saying “Call me Ishmael” instead of “My name is Ishmael.” The...

The simile in which Captain Ahab is described as looking "like a man cut away from the stake" reflects both nineteenth-century moral, religious, and classical ideas, as well as Melville's own notions...

Here, Melville is myth-making, and Ishmael is delving into the myth, joining Ahab's revenge against the whale. The chapter begins like an invocation from an epic poem: Ishmael, was one of that...

Chapter 35 of Moby Dick finds Ishmael engaged in metaphysical reverie at he narrates his experience of standing at the masthead as lookout for whales.  Satire is prevalent throughout this...

Through psychoanalytic theory, Captain Ahab's character in Moby-Dick can be seen as driven by an obsessive and vindictive nature. His monomaniacal pursuit of the white whale, Moby Dick, symbolizes a...

The doubloon is a gold coin, worth about "sixteen dollars" according to Ahab, minted in Ecuador. Ahab nails the coin to the mast and declares that it will go to the man that first sights Moby Dick....

This passage from Moby Dick is important because it explains that Ahab had a nature and emotional strength nobler and far greater than the average person. When Ahab spies Moby Dick, he has smaller...

Moby Dick is a sperm whale. This species is characterized by its large head and prominent rounded forehead, making it one of the most easily recognizable whales. In Herman Melville's novel, the sperm...

Ahab had lost his leg to Moby Dick. In Chapter 41, Ismael relates the history of Ahab's encounter with Moby Dick. Moby Dick had been known to turn around on those who chased him; the great whale...

Ahab's seething rage over the loss of his leg and the attack on his ship is symbolically brought to focus by Moby Dick, which represents that anger and revenge.

It's a way of foreshadowing the outcome where Moby Dick rams the ship with his mighty forehead. The whale sinks the ship. Moby Dick is the alter ego of Ahab. (You could compare it to Hemingway's...

According to Walter Kaufmann, existentialism is by nature a "revolt" against traditional philosophy, not "reducible to any set of tenets," instead relying on a "timeless sensibility" only...

Moby Dick was written by Herman Melville in 1851.  I think a good analogy at the time in the U.S. would be the idea of Manifest Destiny.  Manifest Destiny was the idea that it was...

With Ishmael and Ahab there is clearly a dichotomy: the humble man of no family or special rank, a godly man who develops relationships with other men and of the spirit, and the ungodly, god-like...