How Does Ahab Change Throughout The Novel

Ahab’s psyche was forever changed while hunting down the elusive white whale. Ahab’s most prominent symptom of his psychological decay was his obsession with Moby Dick. Throughout the novel Ahab expressed a clear obsession with the white whale, but within the text he is found expending a great amount of energy to find the possible locations of the white whale, “Almost every night [the maps] were brought out; almost every night some pencil marks were effaced, and others were substituted. For with the charts of all four oceans before him, Ahab was threading a maze of currents and eddies, with a view to the more certain accomplishment of that monomaniac thought of his soul” (Melville, 207). Clearly showing irrational obsessions as well as dysfunctional cognitions, Ahab is turning to the one thing
The Ecuadorean doubloon was a symbol open to interpretation. Ahab’s interpretation of the coin portended to his ultimate battle with Moby Dick, and that the “mountain-tops and towers” on the coin itself represented “Ahab, the courageous, the undaunted, and victorious” (Melville, 332). This superiority complex is a manifestation of his plot for revenge. Believing he has god-like powers, he believes he is above everyone else because he has the confidence to kill Moby Dick: a character commonly described as an indescribable creature with satanic and godlike characters. These delusions of grandeur are not the final symptoms that Ahab exhibits, Ahab shows symptoms of impaired social functioning. From the outset of the journey Ahab secluded himself within his cabin, only leaving once the crew left the deck. Although this reclusive behaviour became less apparent as the narrative progressed, he still showed signs of un-conformability in social situations. Clearly expressed during dinner sessions, Ahab adhered himself and his crew to a rigid hierarchy and a set code of conduct (Melville,