Captain Ahab's Monomania

Monomania, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, is the pathological obsession with one subject or idea. In Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, an obsession causes monomania in its main character. Through his actions, words, thoughts, and what others think about him, Captain Ahab is truly monomaniacal.

Ahab is monomaniacal through his words and thoughts. "Talk not to me of blasphemy,man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me." This shows Ahab's madness because only he would have the nerve to say that no matter who it is, great or small, he would stand up to them; this includes Moby Dick. Ahab often smokes a pipe, but he realizes something and says "What business have I with this pipe? This thing that is meant for sereneness, to send up mild white vapors among mild white hairs, not among torn iron-grey locks like mine. I'll smoke no more." He admits that he is not a peaceful man, which is quite monomaniacal. Another event that shows Ahab's monomania is when he talks directly to a dead whale's head, saying
The thoughts of fellows crew members on the Pequod often comment on how they feel about Ahab. Ishmael describes Ahab as being "A grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab; doesn't speak much;Ahab's been in colleges, as well as among the cannibals; been used to deeper wonders than the waves; fixed his fiery lance in mightier, stranger foes than whales." Queeqeug gives his two cents worth when he says "More than once did he put forth the faint blossom of a look, which, in any other man, would have soon flowered out in a smile." Obviously, Ahab did not like to smile, which is something that happy people do. Finally, Stubb comments that "The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul." He says that Ahab has wasted his soul in pursuit of Moby Dick, and that if it was not for the sea and the white whale, Ahab would not be