You may be looking for the titular character.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
Moby-Dick, or The Whale, is a novel written by Herman Melville. Released in 1851, it tells of the voyage of the ship Pequod. Though largely forgotten in its era, Moby-Dick has gained a reputation as one of the great American novels - with notable admirers of the novel including D.H. Lawrence and William Faulkner.
Characters[]
- Ishmael - the narrator of the book.
- Captain Ahab - the captain of the Pequod. An ivory peg-legged sailor with a grudge against the titular whale.
- Moby-Dick - the white whale, with whom Captain Ahab is obsessed with. The whale is foreshadowed throughout the early sections of Moby-Dick - most notably in the sermon of Father Mapple. Gabriel views the white whale as the manifestation of his god.
- Starbuck - the chief mate of the Pequod. A native of Nantucket.
- Queequeg - a harpooneer and native of Polynesia with striking tattoos
- Fedallah - the leader of Ahab's harpooneers. A native of Asia whom is surrounded by an extremely dark atmosphere.
- Stubb - the second mate of the Pequod. A native of Cape-Cod.
- Tashtego - A Native American and the squire of Stubb.
- Flask - The third mate of the Pequod. A native of Martha's Vineyard.
- Daggoo - A large native of Africa and the squire of Flask.
- Fleece - the Pequod's cook, an old black man
- Pip - a black cabin boy driven insane after jumping into the sea
- Captain Peleg and Captain Bildad - the two owners of the Pequod, both devout Quakers.
- "Gabriel" - a crazed Shaker whom predicts the death of Captain Ahab.
- Father Mapple - a former whaler who becomes a preacher
- Captain Boomer - the captain of the Samuel Enderby, whom has also had an encounter with the white whale
- Captain Mayhew - the captain of the Jeroboam
- Derick De Deer - the captain of the Jungfrau
Publisher's Summary[]
The 2002 Wordsworth Classics paperback edition of Moby-Dick, with an introduction by David Herd
"It is the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hawsers. A Polar wind blows through it, and birds of prey hover over it."
So Melville wrote of his masterpiece, one of the greatest works of imagination in literary history. In part, Moby-Dick is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopaedia of whaling lore and legend, the book can be seen as part of its author's lifelong meditation on America.
Written with wonderfully redemptive humour, Moby-Dick is also a profound inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.
Plot[]
While in Manhattan, a sailor named Ishmael recounts a tale. Several years previously, Ishmael travelled to the town of New Bedford in Massachusetts. While wandering the streets late at night, he noticed the sign of an inn called "The Spouter-Inn" owned by one Peter Coffin. The innkeeper offers a bed already taken by a "cannibal" harpooneer named Queequeg from Polynesia whom is out wandering the street "selling heads". After Ishmael enters into Queequeg's room and slides into bed, Queequeg enters into the room. Ishmael is disturbed by Queequeg's tattooed body and his idol worship. Queequeg finds Ishmael in his bed and is frightened by him until the innkeeper calms the harpooneer down.
The next day, Ishmael and Queequeg eat breakfast together. After breakfast, Ishmael walks through the streets - finding many Polynesians among the citizens of New Bedford - before he finds a "Whaleman's Chapel". He is joined by Queequeg and the two listen to the pastor give a sermon on the Book of Jonah as a storm billows outside. After returning to the Spouter-Inn, the two seamen become fast friends - with Queequeg giving Ishmael a small amount of money (which he uses to pay Queequeg's rent) and telling his fellow sailor his backstory.
The next day, Queequeg and Ishmael hail a boat to Nantucket. After a storm billows, a "bumpkin" is thrown overboard and is rescued by Queequeg. Once in Nantucket, the two seamen visit an inn named the Try Pots owned by the Spouter-Inn landlord's cousin where the two eat chowder. While Queequeg holds a ritual to Yojo (his people's God), Ishmael looks for a whaling-ship to join. He decides on a vessel called the Pequod. After looking at the ship (which is adorned with the bones and teeth of the sperm whales its crew has hunted), Ishmael meets with one of the owners of the ship, Captain Peleg - a devout Quaker and the former captain of the Pequod. Though initially suspicious of Ishmael due to his lack of experience, Peleg and his fellow owner Bildad warm to the young man. Oddly, the captain of the ship - a man named Ahab - does not show, with Peleg claiming that the captain is sick.
On returning to the inn, Ishmael finds that the door to his and Queequeg's room is locked. Though the landlord tries to stop him, Ishmael breaks the door down and finds Queequeg in a trance-like state. Once the sun rises, Queequeg's trance breaks. On first meeting Queequeg, Peleg and Bildad refuse to allow the "cannibal" on board the ship but Ishmael is able to convince them to allow his friend on board. While walking the streets, the two sailors are accosted by a mysterious man who claims to be called Ellijah who cryptically hints that something is deeply wrong with Captain Ahab. Thinking that Ellijah is crazy, Ishmael and Queequeg ignore him.
After Ishmael and Queequeg board the Pequod, its owners begin its voyage while its captain "remain[s] invisibly enshrined within his cabin". While the Pequod floats through Nantucket, Ishmael spots a man he first saw in the Spouter-Inn. After Ishmael meets the various members of the crew, he first sights Captain Ahab - a man who "seems made of solid bronze" with a fake leg made of ivory. One of the first actions of Ahab in the narrative is to argue with Stubb (his second-mate). Instead of being angered by this, Stubb is perplexed by this - with the second-mate giving up pipe-smoking and dreaming of Captain Ahab. The next day, Captain Ahab rallies his crew over the hunt for Moby-Dick - the white whale that "reaped" Ahab's missing leg - by offering a coin to whomever sights the whale first and by making his crew drink from a pewter.
Some time later, as the Pequod nears the Cape of Good Hope, Tashtego spots a herd of whales. Ahab - followed by a group of harpooneers led by Fedallah whom the Captain smuggled into the Pequod's bowels - emerges from the hold. Various members of the crew (including Ishmael and Queequeg) set off from the Pequod to hunt down the whales but fail to keep up with them. A few days later, the Pequod sights several other ships floating through the ocean. While in a "gam" with one of these ships, a sailor blabs a story which the crew of the Pequod think of as prophetic. Due to this, the crew refuse to recount the tale to their Captain.
After the Pequod sails through a field of "brit", the crew sights a massive squid floating through the ocean - a bad omen for the superstitious whalers. The next day, Stubb sights a whale and kills it. He has the ship's cook make a whale-steak for him but finds that said steak is overcooked. He then argues with the cook over this. After Stubb kills another whale (with both being decapitated and their heads hung over the sides of the ship), the Pequod runs into a ship (the Jeroboam) which is filled with plague. During a gam with the ship, a crazed Shaker whom has dubbed himself Gabriel with a cult of personality learns that Captain Ahab intends on killing Moby-Dick and declares that he will die, as Gabriel views Moby-Dick as a manifestation of his god.
While Tashtego works on one of the whale heads, he falls into said head - which promptly falls into the sea. Tashtego is saved from drowning after Queequeg pulls him from the sea. Sometime later, the Pequod meets with a German whaling-boat (named the Jungfrau) which has run completely out of oil. The two ships spot an ancient whale drifting through the sea and their crews race to kill the aged beast - with the members of the Pequod winning.
While in the waters of Southeast Asia the Pequod encounters a massive pod of whales after escaping Malay pirates. Though they drug the entire pod, the crew only kill a few of the whales in the pod. They then encounter a ship named the Rose-Bud hauling the desiccated corpses of two whales captained by an inept first-timer. With the help of a crewman of the Rose-Bud from Guernsey, Stubb convinces the captain to jettison his cargo of whales (stating that they hold the plague within their bowels) and then harvests one of them for ambegris. While Stubb harvests the ambegris, his after-oarsman sprains his hand. As such, Stubb enlists a black cabin-boy named Pip to be his after-oarsman. During this job, Pip jumps into the sea and gets left behind for an hour - which is said to "drown his soul" - before being rescued by the Pequod.
Some time later, the Pequod encounters a British whaling-ship named the Samuel Enderby. Ahab learns that the Enderby's captain has lost an arm to Moby-Dick and briefly talks with Captain Boomer (whom is perplexed with Ahab's burning desire to slay the white whale). While leaving the Samuel Enderby, Ahab damages his prosthetic leg and has to have it replaced by the ship's carpenter. Around the same time, Starbuck notices a leak in the ship's stocks of whale oil. Though Ahab initially ignores this, he decides to "hoist the Burtons" after an argument with his chief mate.
While working in the bowels of the Pequod Queequeg falls gravely ill. Thinking that he will die, Queequeg has the ship's carpenter construct a coffin for him to be buried at sea in. Shortly after this, Queequeg recovers (seemingly due to the force of his own will) and begins using the coffin as a sea-chest. Around this time, Ahab has a harpoon constructed by the ship's blacksmith and baptised with the blood of Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo. After a meeting with another whaling-ship known as the Bachelor, Fedallah prophecizes that his captain will die after he sights two hearses - which Ahab takes as a sign that he will not die during his hunt.
While moving through the waters around Japan, the Pequod is caught in a typhoon and enveloped in electrical fire. Starbuck sees this as a bad sign for the Pequod but Ahab sees the opposite - that it is a good omen for the hunt for the white whale. Shortly after this, a man falls from the ship. Though the ship's lifebuoy is launched, the man slips into the sea along with the buoy. Due to this, Ahab has Queeuqeg's coffin made into the ship's new lifebuoy.
While nearing the equator, Ahab becomes enraptured in the hunt. He avoids his crew with his only companion in these times being the mad Pip. While drifting in these waters, the Pequod encounters the Delight - a whaling-ship who had an encounter with the white whale. The captain (who knows Ahab) tries to get Ahab to rescue his son - who was trapped on a harpoon boat attacked by the white whale - but Ahab refuses and sails away.
Shortly after this, Ahab finally sights the white whale. He voyages in a harpoon boat to hunt after the whale but this boat is split in two by Moby-Dick. Despite this, Ahab (along with Fedallah and all other hands on board) survive. The next day, the scene repeats but Fedallah (along with Ahab's harpoon and his prosthetic leg) are lost. Though Starbuck tries to convince Ahab to end the hunt, the captain refuses. On the third and final day of the hunt, the crew once again hunt for Moby-Dick in harpoon boats and Moby-Dick - with the corpse of Fedallah attached to his frame - attacks them yet again. During this attack, Ahab realizes that Fedallah's prophecy has come true (with his own ship serving as one of the hearses in a cruel twist of fate) shortly before Moby-Dick attacks the Pequod - sinking the vessel. Ahab dies after his neck is caught around one of his own harpoon lines. The only man who escapes drowning in the ruins of the Pequod is Ishmael - who floats through the ocean on the coffin-turned-lifebuoy before being saved by the Rachel.
Notes[]
- Included within many editions of Moby-Dick are sections called "Etymology", on the etymology of the word whale and "Extracts", which reprints sections of works discussing whales - including the Bible, Nathaniel Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales, Charles Darwin's Voyage of a Naturalist, James Fenimore Cooper's The Pilot, Captain Cook's Voyages, Paradise Lost, The Pilgrim's Progress, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Hamlet, and Montaigne's Essays.
See also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bartleby, the Scrivener | Herman Melville | 1853 | A short story by the same author with similar themes |
| In the Heart of the Sea | Nathaniel Philbrick | 2000 | A nonfiction book about a real world event that inspired the events of this novel |
| Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West | Cormac McCarthy | 1985 | A novel with similar themes to this novel that was inspired by this novel |
| The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket | Edgar Allan Poe | 1838 | A novel by one of Melville's contemporaries with somewhat similar themes |
| Lord Jim | Joseph Conrad | 1900 | A nautical novel with somewhat similar themes |
| The Brakespeare Voyage | Simon Bucher-Jones and Jonathan Dennis | 2013 | A science fiction novel inspired by Moby-Dick |
| The Five Books of the Lives and Deeds of Gargantua and Pantagruel | François Rabelais | 1532-1564 | A novel that inspired this novel |
| Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes | 1605-1615 | A maximalist novel with similar themes of obsession |
| The Pilot | James Fenimore Cooper | 1823 | A nautical novel by one of Melville's contemporaries |
| The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne | 1850 | A novel by one of Melville's contemporaries with somewhat similar themes |
| The Pirate | Walter Scott | 1821 | A nautical novel released around the same time |
| House of Leaves | Mark Z. Danielewski | 2000 | A similarly inventive maximalist novel with similar themes |
| The Song of Megaptera | Pat Mills | 2010 | An audio play possibly inspired by this novel |