Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Ahab's Character Development
Throughout most of Moby-Dick, the little information that the reader has about Captain Ahab is through Ishmael. During the majority of the voyage, Captain Ahab is described through his actions or his very concise commands to his crew. Of course, there is the occasional “Hath thee seen the White Whale?” but the reader does not get a true sense of Captain Ahab’s emotions, except for his monomania. This approach changes however, when Captain Ahab has an extremely profound and intimate conversation with Starbuck. His dialogue with Starbuck helped me better understand the deep anguish that Ahab felt while on the Pequod. The increased dialogues along with Ishmael focusing more on the plot than on descriptions of the boat or Moby Dick, made the last chapters much more enjoyable to read.
During Ahab’s soliloquy in The Symphony, he reveals to Starbuck that he has felt deep depression over the last forty years of his life (most of which were spent at sea). He goes into great detail about his wife and child, who he believes he has made a widow and an orphan by being away from Nantucket for so long. I believe that Melville included this piece to give Ahab a sense of humanity, whereas for the first 550 pages he served almost solely as a metaphor.
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It was evident to me as well that there is a shift from the story being told through Ishmael’s narration to more weight being put on the perspective of Ahab. In addition to the conversation between Starbuck and Ahab, the scene where Ahab abandons Pip after showing compassion for him earlier in the novel is also very telling. While he still pities Pip, he admits, “Have a care, for Ahab too is mad” (581). Even if the compassionate side of Ahab wants to help Pip, he realizes that he is too damaged to take care of anyone. While Ishmael’s narration tends to only focus on Ahab’s monomania, the scenes where Ahab is speaking demonstrate that there is emotional depth to Ahab’s personality but it has been warped by his insanity.
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