Moby Dick

                                               

                                           Moby Dick

          -Herman Melville

                                        

                                                

              Herman Melville describes his book ‘ Moby-Dick’  as a  “Romance of adventure”.

                Melville tries to find out man’s original relation to   the universe. Really, this work is truly epic character , with strong allegorical meanings. We find many different interpretations and symbol as ‘ White Whale’ connected with orthodoxy and religious despair.     

                ‘Moby-Dick’ is  justly regarded as Melville’s Masterpiece. The novel contains Ishmael’s own reflection, meditations, philosophical observations and generalizations based upon his experiences during the fantastic voyage. We can say that Ishmael as a projection of Melville’s own identity.                          

        In novel , there we find many characters. But very important characters are Ahab , Ishmael  ,and Moby-Dick. The protagonist of the novel – Ahab, often speaks and behaves in an impious and blasphemous manner.  

                Ahab has a dictatorial temper. Ahab lost his leg struggle between him and the monster White Whale- Moby-Dick.  Ahab’s experiences fail to deflect him from his purpose. He wants to take revenge with Moby-Dick and this novel takes shape on the theme  of personal revenge and so many other significances.

        The novel – Moby-Dick does not merely tell an adventurous story of the sea but also open to symbolic wide interpretations. Like……..

1.  Conflict between good and evil

2.   Search for universal truth

3.  Personal Revenge

4.  Egotistic self inflation

5.  Uncontrolled wrath

6.  Doubt on the  existence of Almighty- God.

7.  Feeling of unjustis.                

                                  It is said that……… “ Man can die but can’t defeat.”

                 Ahab can’t accept human limitation. He puts himself on a level of equality of God and can’t believe in God.  We have same character of Dr.Faustus from the Renaissance age .Dr.Faustus also never believe in God and  tries to cross the human limitation. So, we may put these both characters not as ‘Satan’ but a human being who possessed of all Satan’s pride and energy. So, I think sometime Ahab’s character becomes evil and his dialogue describes his egotism.

Ahab says that………

“ He would strike the Sun if the sun were to insult him.”

        Ahab is a dynamic man of action at the sometime deep thinker. So , Ahab is a monomaniac. Therefore , in ch-113 Ahab gets the name of ‘Devil’ not given the name of God.

        Where as…………..

        Moby – Dick , we take incorporates in itself an image of father eternal. The white whale is taken as good there is universal signification. If we take it as like Nature, the White whale is paradoxically benign and malevolent, nourishing and destructive.

        The white whale is massive , brutal, monolithic, but at the same time protean, erotically beautiful and infinitely variable.

        So, Ahab is hopeless person and crushed his humanity and go against nature. The white whale – Moby-Dick is a symbol of Nature.

         We may describe Ahab as dispositions of human nature and all that part of personality which psycho-analysis have called “ ID” . While observing the white whale’s action , have been called “ Super Ego.”

        If we take Ahab as a good , we find much evil things in him. And if we take white whale – Moby-Dick  as evil, we find all controls of universe in it.Ahab’s desire to hunt down the white whale becomes a quest after the truth or an endeavor to solve  mystery.

        Moby-Dick is as a great phallic symbol , as a symbol of the vitality of the universe and of the life-principle.

According to D. H. Lawrence’s…………..

“ If this voyage did not have a deeper significance, the book ‘Moby-Dick’ would not be the great work of literature.”

Ahab speaks in ch- 118 ………

“ Science ! Cruse thee, thou vain toy.”

        Moby-Dick is not just a Whale , it is not just a dumb-brute of sea. For Ahab, Moby-Dick is an agent of Supernatural powers which personify evil. We can’t take Moby-Dick only just evil, the white whale represents God and goodness by forcefully in somewhere in the novel.

        Therefore, Moby-Dick describe a world in which a meaningless action can take place and in which a meaningless conflict between a madman and dumb brute can happen.

                “ Human is a part of Nature.”

                In world, some things are beyond the hand of man. We have to accept something which can’t be hold on hand, which can’t understand easily. Being a Mankind we have limit . The white whale has no any kind of bondage . It has its own principles and Nature.

        Moby-Dick represents our “ Universal parents”. The Colour of the White whale describes much significations.  Whiteness signifies death and unligal work as much as it signifies purity, innocence , and youth.  We can’t take the white whale as a single aspect.

                                                

                                                     

                                                   

                Moby-Dick describes Universal truth . The white whale is dumb wild animal which is represented significance of God and control of the world. Nature is connected with this ocean and white whale. Ahab wants to reveal  Truth which is beyond the hand of him.Moby-Dick has powerful grandeur of expression and pulsing heartbeat in its descriptions of men and nature.

        White whale is a symbol of the universe so that Ahab wants to solve the mystery of the universe.

        About Moby-Dick there is a kind of inscrutability and universality in possible interpretation of the symbols.

                                             

Example:

“ In ch- 117, Fedallah says that……. Ahab is killed by hemp. But Ahab is mistaken  and says to Fedallah that he must be immoral because there is no hemp to kill him. But the Parsee’s prophecy would be fulfilled in mysterious manner.”

                                      Ahab never believe in  existence of God and every time he suspects about it and he describe God as “Unprincipled”. He  never takes mind up other person’s suggestions. Ahab says that……

 “Truth has no confines.” 

        Every man says that no harpoon was made to killed Moby-Dick.but Ahab says that……….

“ Oh! How immaterial are all materials! What things real there but imponderable thoughts? “ 

        At the end of the novel , we seem that Ahab is ready to die but not to give up his pursuit of Moby-Dick. Ahab himself killed in encounter and only Ishmael save by coffin of Rachel’s ship. Ishmael sees himself as …..

“ Only found an orphan!.”

        The tragic end of Ahab describe the Universal Truth and all prophecies proved true incidentally.

 AT lat, Ishmael , sole survivor of its tragic violence , still appears in the epilogue to be asking……..

        “ What does it all mean ?"

        Only for his own egotism Nature , Ahab lost his life and because of his nature conflict start between two nature – Universal things which is wanted to win by Ahab but Ahab lost his life for searching it.