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...

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,...

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 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...

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...

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...

I pity Ahab for his tragic quest.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

In discussing the sense of tragedy in Moby Dick, it is important to focus on Captain Ahab. The captain of the Pequod, Ahab is a half-crazed, megalomaniacal tyrant bent on hunting and killing...

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...

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 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,...

Ahab is destroyed well-before the Pequod meets Moby Dick. He is consumed by his over-riding fixation, his "mono-mania" directed at the white whale and characterized by irrational rage. This is...

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.

In chapter 36, “The Quarter Deck,” Ahab tries to convince Starbuck to share his quest for vengeance against Moby Dick. Starbuck is shown to be a model whaleman and a hard-headed practical thinker....

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...

Ahab is a tragic figure whose single-minded pursuit of revenge against Moby Dick is self-destructive. He symbolizes the inexorableness of Fate.

Boomer and Ahab differ in their attitudes toward Moby Dick in that Boomer is grateful to be alive and chooses not to continue hunting the whale, while Ahab is obsessed with revenge and cares about...

In Melville's Moby Dick, to all Moby Dick is a formidable force, but Starbuck, the Quaker, feels that it wrong for Ahab to seek vengeance upon a dumb brute:  "to be enraged with a dumb...

You must be referring to the bizarre religious rite Ahab performs in "The Quarter Deck" chapter to consecrate his crew and ship in the quest to destroy Moby Dick. At one point, Ahab orders his...

To Ahab, Moby Dick symbolizes evil, a malevolent being that purposefully and with malice attacked him and bit off his leg. His pursuit of Moby Dick to exact vengeance turns him into a monomaniac,...

In Moby-Dick, Starbuck opposes Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of the white whale, Moby Dick, because he sees it as irrational and blasphemous. Starbuck argues that the whale is a mere animal acting...

In Moby-Dick, the white whale symbolizes the limits of human understanding, embodying multiple meanings such as nature's opposition, mystery, and divinity. The whale's distinctive whiteness allows...

Herman Melville's Moby Dick exemplifies Romantic literature through its use of "Dark Romanticism" and the sublime, evoking awe and mystery, particularly in the character of Captain Ahab. Romanticism,...

In Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab symbolizes humanity's obsessive quest for meaning in a chaotic universe, driven by revenge against the white whale, Moby Dick. Ahab's obsession with the whale, which he...

At the end of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the white whale, Moby Dick, survives after a destructive final encounter with the Pequod. Captain Ahab, driven by a vengeful obsession, is killed when he is...

In Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab's quest for revenge against the white whale, Moby Dick, is driven by both personal and symbolic motivations. Ahab lost his leg to the whale, which he perceives as a...

In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab's greatest weakness is his obsessive pursuit of revenge against the white whale, Moby Dick, disregarding the safety of his crew and ship. This obsession...