Ahab's Monomania
Ahab as a Monomaniac
In the novel, A Moby Dick, Ahab is obsessed with killing a white whale named Moby Dick. This deep obsession over one thing is called a monomania. Ahab’s monomania is all focused around Moby Dick because Ahab had previously lost his leg to the jaws of this white whale. Ahab has never been quite the same ever since; he goes from being a respected ship captain and a family man to being a psychopath determined to kill one whale in an entire ocean. I found this aspect of the novel particularly interesting so I decided to look at the effects of Ahab's monomania on him and the crew. The first, and most obvious, effect of Ahab’s monomania is that it consumes all of his time. Ishmael describes that every night, “In the solitude of his cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his own charts. Almost every night …show more content…
On their journey to find Moby Dick, the Pequod encounters another ship called the Jeroboam. Usually the captains have a conversation when two ships meet, but the whole crew of the Jeroboam was very sick. The captain of the Jeroboam explains this to Ahab, but he responds: “‘I fear not an epidemic, man,’ said Ahab from the bulwarks, to Captain Mayhew, who stood in the boat's stern; ‘come on board’” (Melville 344). Ahab has no fear of this epidemic because of his sense of immortality, but still knows he is putting the rest of the crew in danger. Despite of this, Ahab invites the Jeroboam members on board in order to obtain information about Moby Dick. This risk shows that Ahab values finding and killing Moby Dick over the safety of his own crew. By evaluating Ahab's monomania, I am now able to understand that it has had several negative effects on the crew. More specifically, it consumes all of Ahab’s time, it makes him crazy, and has put both his and his crew’s lives at risk. Therefore, this obsession arguably changed Ahab from being a good captain and a family man, to a bad and self-centered
In the novel, A Moby Dick, Ahab is obsessed with killing a white whale named Moby Dick. This deep obsession over one thing is called a monomania. Ahab’s monomania is all focused around Moby Dick because Ahab had previously lost his leg to the jaws of this white whale. Ahab has never been quite the same ever since; he goes from being a respected ship captain and a family man to being a psychopath determined to kill one whale in an entire ocean. I found this aspect of the novel particularly interesting so I decided to look at the effects of Ahab's monomania on him and the crew. The first, and most obvious, effect of Ahab’s monomania is that it consumes all of his time. Ishmael describes that every night, “In the solitude of his cabin, Ahab thus pondered over his own charts. Almost every night …show more content…
On their journey to find Moby Dick, the Pequod encounters another ship called the Jeroboam. Usually the captains have a conversation when two ships meet, but the whole crew of the Jeroboam was very sick. The captain of the Jeroboam explains this to Ahab, but he responds: “‘I fear not an epidemic, man,’ said Ahab from the bulwarks, to Captain Mayhew, who stood in the boat's stern; ‘come on board’” (Melville 344). Ahab has no fear of this epidemic because of his sense of immortality, but still knows he is putting the rest of the crew in danger. Despite of this, Ahab invites the Jeroboam members on board in order to obtain information about Moby Dick. This risk shows that Ahab values finding and killing Moby Dick over the safety of his own crew. By evaluating Ahab's monomania, I am now able to understand that it has had several negative effects on the crew. More specifically, it consumes all of Ahab’s time, it makes him crazy, and has put both his and his crew’s lives at risk. Therefore, this obsession arguably changed Ahab from being a good captain and a family man, to a bad and self-centered