Moby Dick Themes - 1171 Words

Themes Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Limits of Knowledge As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby-Dick, to offer a simple collection of literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the essential nature of the whale. Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his authority as a narrator and the†¦show more content†¦These examples reverse the traditional association of whiteness with purity. Whiteness conveys both a lack of meaning and an unreadable excess of meaning that confounds individuals. Moby Dick is the pinnacle of whiteness, and Melville’s characters cannot objectively understand the White Whale. Ahab, for instance, believes that Moby Dick represents evil, while Ishmael fails in his attempts to determine scientifically the whale’s fundamental nature. Surfaces and Depths Ishmael frequently bemoans the impossibility of examining anything in its entirety, noting that only the surfaces of objects and environments are available to the human observer. On a live whale, for example, only the outer layer presents itself; on a dead whale, it is impossible to determine what constitutes the whale’s skin, or which part—skeleton, blubber, head—offers the best understanding of the entire animal. Moreover, as the whale swims, it hides much of its body underwater, away from the human gaze, and no one knows where it goes or what it does. The sea itself is the greatest frustration in this regard: its depths are mysterious and inaccessible to Ishmael. This motif represents the larger problem of the limitations of human knowledge. Humankind is not all-seeing; we can only observe, and thus only acquire knowledge about, that fraction of entities—both individuals and environments—to which we have access: surfaces. Symbols Symbols are objects,Show MoreRelatedThe Theme Of Inevitability In Melvilles Moby Dick702 Words   |  3 PagesThroughout the first chapter of Moby-Dick, a theme of inevitability is brought up time and time again. In a contest of free will and fate, it seems that fate has – and always will – win; this lack of control, though interestingly not viewed by Ishmael as distressing, sets the stage for future events. Melville spends most of his time in the first chapter having Ishmael describe the pull that water has on people. With claims like â€Å"posted†¦stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in oceanRead MoreHerman Melville s Moby Dick1358 Words   |  6 PagesHerman Melville’s Moby-Dick contains a man who is among the unforgettable characters of literature: Ahab, sea-captain of the whaling ship the Pequod. Ahab is a mysterious figure to Ishmael, the narrator of the tale, at first. Despite the captain’s initial reclusiveness, Ishmael gradually comes to understand the kind of man that Ahab is and, most importantly, the singular obsession he possesses: finding the white whale, Moby Dick, the beast that bit off his leg. The hunt for Moby Dick (and, correspondinglyRead More Captain Ahab and Moby Dick Essay1234 Words   |  5 Pages Captain Ahab and Moby Dick: Literary critics point to a variety of themes and juxtapositions when analyzing Herman Melvilles â€Å"Moby Dick†. Some see the land opposed to the sea or Fate opposed to free will. Most mention man versus nature or good versus evil. 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