Moby Dick Psycho-Analysis

In the epic novel Moby Dick, the author Herman Melville masterfully crafts the story and the Pequod into a microcosm of the human personality where many lessons can be learned. Based on the relationships of the diverse beings that make up the Pequod crew and their day to day actions the reader gets to know each character inside and out. Between Captain Ahab, Starbuck, and Moby Dick the novel is written in alignment with the human personality according Sigmund Freud’s psychological model. In fact it is a quite an effective example and teaching tool for this very model.
According to Freud’s work and notes Captain Ahab is the Id of the novel, he represents the primitive and instinctive component of the personality. Fueled by revenge Ahab will do anything to kill Moby Dick including endanger his own crew. The id demands immediate satisfaction and Ahab gets his through a mere sighting of the whale, the on water chase is a whole other euphoria to him. Ahab is primitive, illogical, irrational, and stuck in his fantasy of chasing this whale. At one point he even says regarding the whale, “I have chased you through my mind, through a thousand nightmares” The id craves pleasure and the Captain gets his pleasure through the thrill of the chase therefore he craves the chase. Between Ahab’s childish, primitive desires, and the pleasure it brings him he is without a doubt the id.
If Ahab is the id Starbuck is the opposite he is the Ego of the novel, or the part of the id influenced by reality. Starbuck is a much weaker figure than Captain Ahab but he attempts to steer the id in the right direction as its the best he can do. The ego works by reality and reason, exactly as Starbuck does. In contrast the Id works in very unreasonable ways. The ego develops in order to find a happy medium between the unrealistic id and external society. Melville includes Starbuck to corale Captain Ahab’s crazy irrational ways and prevent the ship from imploding sooner than it actually does. It