Moby Dick Research Paper
Sahand Ansari
Period 5
March 10, 2012 White Shadows of the White Whale “Malice in the whale, Madness in the man”. Moby-Dick is a novel of darkness. Though Melville did not intend it, his story, I find, can only be read at night by a dim light on my patio, looking out over the starlit desert. As I read, I sense the darkness of his story. I am not moved to fright or horror by it, but I feel those shadows move in. Psyche is near but not yet touchable. Something is missing, at least if you’ve only read to Chapter 40. There is darkness, jocularity, hints of imminent catastrophe, and pleasant old English to be read. The story is only just developing. Ahab, Ishmael, Starbuck, Stub, Flask, and Moby-Dick: all of these characters …show more content…
Our fears and terrors now have a point—the whale, in space and time upon which to hang. In some strange way, our fears and terrors have an altar upon which we can sacrifice them. The whale becomes the god and, like Ahab, we point to it as source and origin of all that ails us, consciously and unconsciously. The whale/Shadow lives each day with us. We have reflected, as Ahab has, on its presence and now contemplate its destruction. The moral here is about to be conveyed through the character of Ahab, as his emotions represent the act of emotional self-defense. According to Sigmund Freud, The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another person or object, which in this case Ahab projects those faults on Moby Dick, the white sperm …show more content…
Ishmael presents us with one telling sentence: “The White Whale swam before him as a monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung.” (1967, p. 160) As with many a madness, Ahab suffered a physical trauma. He lived through the physical healing of that wounding but “his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so interfusing, made him mad.” (1967, p. 160) Ishmael incorporates poetic speech in his attempt to say that this madness personified in Ahab could afflict any of us. The soul of a human is affected by physical punishment such as humiliation penetrates the mental state of mind of the victim. One, in act of self-pity, will act upon the most dangerous undertaking to remove the humiliation from their mental
Period 5
March 10, 2012 White Shadows of the White Whale “Malice in the whale, Madness in the man”. Moby-Dick is a novel of darkness. Though Melville did not intend it, his story, I find, can only be read at night by a dim light on my patio, looking out over the starlit desert. As I read, I sense the darkness of his story. I am not moved to fright or horror by it, but I feel those shadows move in. Psyche is near but not yet touchable. Something is missing, at least if you’ve only read to Chapter 40. There is darkness, jocularity, hints of imminent catastrophe, and pleasant old English to be read. The story is only just developing. Ahab, Ishmael, Starbuck, Stub, Flask, and Moby-Dick: all of these characters …show more content…
Our fears and terrors now have a point—the whale, in space and time upon which to hang. In some strange way, our fears and terrors have an altar upon which we can sacrifice them. The whale becomes the god and, like Ahab, we point to it as source and origin of all that ails us, consciously and unconsciously. The whale/Shadow lives each day with us. We have reflected, as Ahab has, on its presence and now contemplate its destruction. The moral here is about to be conveyed through the character of Ahab, as his emotions represent the act of emotional self-defense. According to Sigmund Freud, The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or "projecting," those same faults onto another person or object, which in this case Ahab projects those faults on Moby Dick, the white sperm …show more content…
Ishmael presents us with one telling sentence: “The White Whale swam before him as a monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung.” (1967, p. 160) As with many a madness, Ahab suffered a physical trauma. He lived through the physical healing of that wounding but “his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so interfusing, made him mad.” (1967, p. 160) Ishmael incorporates poetic speech in his attempt to say that this madness personified in Ahab could afflict any of us. The soul of a human is affected by physical punishment such as humiliation penetrates the mental state of mind of the victim. One, in act of self-pity, will act upon the most dangerous undertaking to remove the humiliation from their mental