The story of Moby Dick is filled to the brim with biblical
references, from the names of the characters to Ishmael's habit of ruminating
on various biblical figures. The most glaring of all of these references is the
allegorical nature of the story as a whole. The story can be closely compared
to that of the biblical tale of Jonah and the whale. Both stories concern men
who have forsaken God and and men who are miraculously saved.
The names of the characters are also significant in the story. Ishmael was the
name of Abraham's first son who was exiled to the desert when Isaac was born.
Like his biblical namesake, the story's Ishmael is a bit of an outcast, adrift
on an endless sea much like the biblical desert.
There are numerous biblical allusions in both the novel and the film. First, "the name Ahab describes a king who...
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turns vile, suggesting that the Ahab of this novel will be a similarly conflicted leader. " Secondly, "(t)he biblical Ishmael (Genesis 16:1–16; 21:10 ff.) is disinherited and dismissed from his home in favor of his half-brother Isaac. The name suggests that the narrator is something of an outcast, a drifter, a fellow of no particular family other than mankind. Ishmael confirms his independent ways by telling us that he seeks no special rank aboard ship and would not want to be either a cook or a captain; he says he has enough responsibility just taking care of himself.
What are the two significant biblical allusions in Moby Dick and their references?
There are actually several Biblical allusions in Moby Dick.
One is the allusion to the story of Jonah. The story of Jonah centers specifically around God calling Jonah to do a job, which Jonah is reluctant to do. While sailing on a ship away from God's destination for Jonah, a great storm threatens the ship; Jonah is thrown from the ship at his own suggestion believing he is the cause of the storm in failing to carry out God's will. Jonah is saved from drowning when he is swallowed by a great fish (the "whale"). During his "captivity," he repents, and God orders the whale to throw Jonah up.
Ahab might be seen as a Jonah-character, in that he is a Quaker, a man of God who is supposed to be a pacifist, and yet he becomes maniacally bent upon pursuing and destroying the whale, turning his back on the teachings of his own religion.
Another allusion is the use of the name Ishmael, the son of the slave girl Hagar, son of Abraham—before Abraham and Sarah's son, Isaac (promised to them by God) is born. Though Sarah has suggested that Abraham sleep with their slave girl Hagar in order to have a son, when Hagar's son is born, Sarah and Hagar fight so much, that Hagar finally runs away. (God appears to her and sends Hagar and Ishmael back to Abraham's camp; but the sense of the outcast is found here as she laments her exile from humanity, fearing for the death of her son, as well as herself.)
The first line, the novel's most famous, is "Call me Ishmael" which is a direct reference to the story of Hagar and Ishmael, which symbolizes all who feel exiled or outcast, as does the character Ishmael.
Another reference is to the Bible can be found in the names Elijah (a prophet of God), and Ahab is a Biblical king (and worshipper of idols, who is eventually destroyed by God).