Moby Dick Ahab

Moby Dick: Ahab’s Struggle For Revenge Essay, Research Paper

Ahab’s Struggle for Revenge

Many writers over time have attempted to do the exact same thing. They have tried to create a story about one character’s journey, an explanation of the events leading up to that journey, and the results of it. Throw in a little symbolism, and you have a format that has been used and reused over the years. This type of plot can be seen in such classics as The Catcher in the Rye, Huckleberry Finn, and The Odyssey. Besides these popular stories, there are inevitably failures that use this same storyline. To the contrary, there is probably a story that is seen as the culmination of this genre. This story is Moby Dick. Not only does it have a meaningful and symbolic plot; it also appeals to an interest in the sea held by many and is seen as one of the greatest literary works of all time. In Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Ahab wants revenge against the whale, he struggles to get this revenge, and he fails. This struggle, as well as the one in The Odyssey, may be more of a quest than a journey, but what happens along the way to the goal is no different from the events in a typical journey.

Ahab has a great desire and many reasons to get revenge against Moby Dick. The most obvious and physical is the loss of his leg. This loss is also what caused Ahab to begin his struggle against the whale. All of the other reasons for the struggle began to develop in Ahab’s mind after he lost his leg. This is not to say the entire chase happened just because Ahab lost his leg, as such a loss would not cause the typical person to travel so long and so resolutely for the sake of revenge. The injury is not merely a spark either- it is somewhere in between a spark and the sole cause. Captain Ahab sees the injury not just for what it is, but also as a symbol of all the evil man has ever encountered. The injury and its effects on Captain Ahab are summed up by Peleg, “I know, too, that ever since he lost his leg by that accursed whale, he’s been a kind of moody– desperate moody, and savage sometimes; but that will all pass off”(Melville, 60).

Another reason for Ahab’s hate of the whale is that he sees Moby Dick as the source of all evil. He thinks Moby Dick is more than just a whale. He indicates this during a famous speech to the crew members, “He tasks me; he heaps me; I see him in outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him”(120). Ahab also says that Moby Dick’s appearance as a whale is just a mask; he and the crew must try to go beyond that innocent mask to battle Moby Dick.

Ahab thinks he is equal to God. He believes he is fit to fight nature and the universe himself even though he is only human. He displays this arrogance while giving a speech to the crew about why he wants revenge on the whale, “Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me”(120). To Ahab, battling Moby Dick will be almost equal to fighting the sun, yet he still presses on. An ordinary man cannot do such a task. Ahab is showing that he thinks himself to be an equal of God. He is frequently referred to as god-like. For example, Peleg calls him, “A grand, ungodly, god-like man”(59). He is god-like because of the forces he is struggling against, and ungodly because he refuses to worship anything other than his own will. Ahab himself says he is “proud as a Greek god”(347), but he is annoyed that he still must rely on the dumb and lowly carpenter the enable him to stand. Later, Ahab destroys a quadrant and curses everything that makes man turn his eyes to heaven. This shows how little he cares for God, and how much he thinks of himself of God’s equal. He probably feels that he is too great to have to be made to turn his eyes to heaven. Ahab again shows his pride by baptizing a harpoon in the name of the devil, not in the name of the father. He is trying to make himself into his own god, just as the Devil did when he rebelled against God.

The struggle for revenge is a very long one, as evidenced by the fact that the whaleboat goes halfway around the world to search for Moby-Dick. A long trip from port is not unusual for a whaling ship; however, a long trip in disregard of good whaling waters to search for one single whale is somewhat peculiar. The location of Moby Dick just happened to coincide with the possible destination of a typical whaling ship. If the whale was under the North Pole, for example, Ahab still would have gone after it. He illustrates his resolve to find the whale in this quote, “Aye, Aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and rounds perdition’s flames before I give him up”(119).

Despite all of the omens and pleas that are directed towards Ahab, he continues to search for the whale. There are many examples of events that Ahab should have taken notice of and stopped the chase. He learns from two different ships that each one has had a crew member killed by Moby Dick; the captains of both ships recommend that Ahab stay away from the whale. Pip, although seemingly mad, has some measure of wisdom and gives Ahab a warning, “Ha, ha! old Ahab! the White Whale; he’ll nail ye!”(321). Other warnings come from the ruin of several navigational aids. It starts w