How to Read Moby Dick

a guide for first-time readers

Advice for the Reader

Read for yourself.

Think for yourself.
Be intellectually honest.
Meet Melville one-on-one.

Moby Dick is considered one of America's great novels, and as one of the "greats," we should not expect
it to be especially easy reading. It is not a novel to read with the intention that when we finish, we will
have all the answers. In fact, two characteristics of a great novel are that when we finish it, we have the
feeling that it bears re-reading at least in part and we have more questions than answers. Therefore, accept
as fact that as you are reading you may not understand every detail, every nuance.

For a first reading, read straight through for the overall intention of the author. Pause on those chapters
that you find especially thought provoking or powerfully written. Some chapters are so highly detailed
that you will want to read quickly, even skim; for others, read more slowly. The goal of this guide is to
help you finish the novel by suggesting a somewhat organized approach to your reading.

Avoid going to the “notes” about the book that force feed you the interpretive opinions of others. If you
read the novel, you will have interpretive opinions of your own, which are more reliable and more valid
than what someone else can give you. No, you might not decipher all the points of symbolism, and you
might not grasp all the subtle conflicts. However, you will develop your reading skills, your vocabulary,
your reaction/response to Melville and his writing. If you are confused about what you are reading, try
reading it again rather than letting someone else interpret for you. Feel free to ask questions of the text:
Why is the character making that choice? Why did the author include that description/that chapter/that
event? What is meant by that sentence?

Mark your book. Highlight quotations that appeal to you and that mean something to you. Highlight
indications of themes, conflicts, philosophical comments---anything that seems to have importance to you
or that is simply beautifully written. Write questions or observations you have about the text.

Keep a Reader's Log. Writing is thinking. Write your questions or your impressions at the end of each
reading section or as you read particular chapters. Include your observations on the positive and the
negative, the thought provoking and the tedious. Make note of the chapter and page number.

Build your vocabulary. You have the opportunity with this book to help yourself build a powerful
vocabulary. Use the list of vocabulary words below. Make note of the meaning, the chapter, and the page
number where you encounter the word.
 VOCABULARY

Nautical terms in alphabetical order (not required, but might be helpful to know):
ballast, boom, bulkhead, bulwarks, cleat, forecastle, gaff, grapnel, halyard, hawser, helm, jib, league, luff,
reef, scuttle, spar, tiller, yaw

As you read, note the usage of these words; underline the words in the text along with a brief definition
(or write the sentence in which they appear and a brief definition if you are using a library book—
remember to note chapter and page number);

Chapters 1-21: Chapters 43-65:

cataract celestial
monopolize squall
palsy conflagration
sufferable insurgent
tanning ingenuous
skylarking spasmodic
patrician perdition
congregate tumultuous
tarpaulin discriminate
impregnable venerable
trifling
immutable Chapters 66-86:
incorrigible impel
inordinate embalm
apoplexy protuberance
tattered dexterous
enshrine salvation
jurisprudence
Chapters 22-42: stigma
superfluous omnipresent
anoint tawny
ignominy talisman
circumvention
vindictive Chapters 87-109:
deprecate somnambulist
leviathan
punctilious
seaboard
progenitor
embodiment
vehement
smitten
vicissitude
shroud
hue
incarnation
apprehension
abode
Build a significant quotations list. A significant quotation is one that makes us think or feel deeply.
Attempt to explain what it means or how it creates a meaning. Include chapter and page number.

Reading Section 1
"Etymology and Extracts" and Chapters 1 - 21
1. Ishmael reveals much about himself. He arrives in New Bedford. Take notes on his reasons for
wanting to ship out and his basic morality, his personal world view, (his philosophy of life) at this
time.
2. What does he have to say about the differences between landsmen and seamen? And which are
you? A landsman or a seaman?
3. What is his attitude toward religion and spirituality? Is there a distinction to him?
4. What conclusion(s) has he drawn about the idea of the Noble Savage and Christianity?
5. Does he seem to believe in Free Will, Fate, or a combination of the two?
6. By the end of Section 1, does he seem to take a particular philosophical stance, or is it too early
to determine?
7. Take special note of the chapters entitled, The Pulpit and The Sermon. What is the preacher's
lesson?
*If you are not familiar with the Biblical story of Jonah and the Whale, please read it in
the Old Testament book of Jonah.

Reading Section 2
Chapters 22 - 42
1. Note the author's purpose of Chapter 24: Whaling is an important undertaking, of great
significance but little general recognition. Notice his obvious passion for the subject.
2. The next few chapters in this section review the command levels on board the ship.
3. Make a six column chart for the characters: Ahab, Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, Queequeq, Ishmael.
For each make note of personal characteristics/attitudes and the chapter numbers where the
characteristics are seen. [Refer to the Allusion List for possible name symbolism. As a writer in
the 18th century American Romantic tradition, Melville chooses most of his names for a
purpose.]
4. During this section, get a firm grasp on Ahab's personality and character. "The Pipe," Chapter
XXX (30), is important for revealing the internal conflict(s) he is experiencing. Other chapters in
this section also are important for the development of Ahab. His leadership skills are shown in
The QuarterDeck. Add to your character chart above.
5. The second person to take careful notes on is Starbuck, the first mate. Stubb and Flask are,
perhaps, one-dimensional, but also important. Be aware of their attitude toward their work, life in
general, and fate.
6. Melville's characters are representational at the least, and perhaps symbolic, so spend time and
notes determining what belief system they represent. Are they foils of one another? Are Starbuck,
Stubb, and Flask all foils of Ahab?
7. Chapter 32, "Cetology," is a highly detailed discourse on the various types of whales. Some
informal studies show that eight of ten readers who begin reading Moby Dick give up in the
middle of this chapter. DO NOT ASSUME THAT YOU MUST "UNDERSTAND" this chapter.
You can return to it later if you wish. SKIM TO GET THE IDEA. Keep reading. Your goal is to
finish the entire book to have the grand overview.
8. The discussion of Moby as myth and as fact establishes a major theme--the paradoxical realness
of reality. After you have finished the novel, you will be asked to talk about the theme of
paradox.
9. Chapter 42,The Whiteness of the Whale, is all about paradox--not just the paradox of Moby Dick,
but the paradox of all aspects of Life. What other paradoxical aspects of life can you think of?
Reading Section 3
Chapters 43 - 65
1. Continue keeping notes, especially on Ahab and Starbuck. Stubb's character/personality is also
more fully shown in this section.
2. Chapter 46, Surmises, gives deeper insight into Ahab's character and into his thinking
processes. Note his acknowledgement that he has, indeed, overstepped the boundaries of even a
captain. What does he know the crew can legally do about the hunt for Moby if he does not take
care to prevent it? What does he intend to do?
3. Recall that Starbuck was the only crew member to object to Ahab's hunt for Moby. In this section
does Starbuck make any plans to prevent the hunt for the one whale? Be aware also, that
Starbuck, as first mate, has the legal right and responsibility to take command of the ship if the
captain becomes incapacitated (physically or mentally) or derelict in his duties.
4. Describe the mysterious voices and the dusky phantoms (Ch. 46) that are seen around Ahab. Who
are they? What seems to be their purpose on the ship? See also Ch. 50.
5. Take note of Ishmael's observation of concrete objects or sightings and his elevation of them. For
instance, Ch. 51, The Spririt-Spout, describes an apparition that is associated with Moby Dick.
Brit and Squid will also describe concrete images with elevated (symbolic, perhaps) applications.
Remember Ishmael is a Romantic, a dreamer, a symbolist. He is not a landsman, who
concentrates only on the "real." Reality for a Romantic is but a mask or symbol of what lies
beyond. Reality is paradoxical.
6. During this section, you will have the first gam. The Town-Ho's story may be somewhat
foreshadowing, but do not get too involved with it. Read it and move on. Keep moving. Know
what a gam is and take note of how the other ships compare or contrast with the Pequod. As you
have other gams later, Ahab's personality will begin to change.

Reading Section 4 Congratulations! You have finished one-half of this journey.

Chapters 66 - 86

Section 4 has great detail on various aspects of hunting and dissecting the whale. Do not become bogged
down with the literal detail. The detail can be interesting and exciting, but Ishmael's application of the
literal details to human endeavors and the human condition is the exclamation mark he is trying to
communicate.

Consider Chapter 66. This short chapter describes the killing of sharks in great detail. But take note of
the last paragraph. It gives insight into Queequeq's philosophy. What is it?

Chapter 68 describes the skin and blubber of the whale in great detail. Note the last paragraph--a direct
elevation and application to humans. Ishmael learns from Nature:....Oh, man! admire and model thyself
after the whale! Do thou too remain warm among ice.... Here is a direct lesson, and Ishmael wants us to
know it. This is Romanticism--We observe Nature and we learn about ourselves.

The lessons that Ishmael learns and tries to communicate are the reason you are reading. Ralph Waldo
Emerson said that a poet is one who knows the transcendental and can communicate it to others in any
manner. Ishmael has become a poet: he is now communicating lessons learned from Nature. He is a poet
in the ancient tradition.

1. Read the following chapters for lessons (applications to humans or the human condition). In your
reader’s log, write the lessons you discover (you might want to explain your reasoning—just in
case you forget later).
 Chapter 69 The Funeral--the stripping of the whale.

Chapter 70 The Sphynx--the beheading of the whale.

Ahab teaches the lesson here (as observed by Ishmael).

Chapter 72 The Monkey Rope--the cutting (stripping the blubber) of the whale;
also, the monkey rope itself.

Chapter 75 The Right Whale's Head--a comparison with the Sperm Whale's
Head described in Ch. 74. The lesson comes at the end of Ch. 75.

2. In Section 4 you will have two gams. With each gam, make note of how Ahab acts and reacts.
The sailors enjoy the gams because it gives them an opportunity to visit with others and receive
news from home. Why does Ahab want to have the gams?

The Gams in Moby-Dick

Herman Melville, in his celebrated novel Moby-Dick, presents the tale of the driven,
insanely persistent Captain Ahab as he leads his crew, the men of the Pequod, in revenge against
the white whale named in the title. A hesitant, pragmatic first mate, a jovial, unconcerned second
mate, a secretive group of Parsees led by a soothsayer, a crazed boy spouting discomforting truths,
a crew mixed in age, origin, and length of exposure to civilization, and a young, philosophical
narrator named Ishmael sail with Ahab. Cut off from the rest of society, Ahab attempts to create
justice for his personal loss of a leg to the White Whale on a previous expedition, and fights against
the injustice he sees in the uncontrollable forces that surround him. According to poet and critic W.
H. Auden, in his essay “The Romantic Use of Symbols,” Melville makes use of a series of gams,
social interactions or simple exchanges of information between whaling ships at sea, in order to
more clearly present man’s situation as he faces an existence whose meaning he cannot fully grasp
(10). Nine such encounters, literal and symbolic meetings, which increase in frequency toward the
novel’s climax, can be found as the outward-bound Pequod – a Nantucket whaler – hunts in the
Pacific Ocean. The various approaches to life in a world where the truth is outside human grasp,
shown in different attitudes toward the White Whale, and especially used as in contrast or
complement to Captain Ahab’s wild arrogance, are expressed in the whaleboats that come into
contact with the Pequod.
In the first of these gams, found in chapter 52 of Moby-Dick, “The Albatross,” the one-
sided dialogue between the Pequod and the Goney, whose captain cannot answer monomaniacal
Ahab’s query, represents the inability of some men to share their insight into life’s mysteries. The
Goney, a worn and weary Nantucket-bound whaler ironically named for the albatross, a symbol of
good luck, passes close by, yet neither its sailors seated high in the air nor its captain, who
strangely drops his trumpet, successfully greet or respond to Ahab’s “Have ye seen the White
Whale?” (Melville 203). As nature intercepts any chance of communication between the ships –
the wild wind catches the home-bound captain’s voice and prevents a formal gam, in which
instance the captains would board a single ship and the first mates the other –a second ominous
sign – fish swim away from the Pequod’s wake – dissuades any lengthy interactions. Human
communication is easily swept away by an enormous and impenetrable outside force, preventing
any information from reaching Ahab regarding recent sightings of Moby-Dick, emphasized in this
encounter as a symbol of the power beyond man’s control and understanding.
The second of the nine gams, in chapter 54 of Melville’s Moby-Dick, follows soon after the
first, and involves a ship, the Town-Ho, whose crew has encountered and battled the White Whale
yet, in a reflection of human suspicion and failure to cooperate, does not warn Ahab. The
homeward-bound Town-Ho reveals a terrifying story of mutiny and whale-inflicted death that the
top four men on the Pequod never hear: the tale reaches the others only because the savage
harpooner Tashtego retells the story, breaking an oath, in his sleep. This intense secrecy on the
Town-Ho’s part represents a second approach to encounters with the great forces which dominate
men’s lives; a suspicious, self-imposed silence reigns, preventing other men from learning through
the Town-Ho’s experience, which Ishmael depicts as a fear-inspiring instance of the White Whale
acting as a Supreme Justice on the sea. Where the Goney’s silence was circumstantially brought
about by weather conditions, the Town-Ho’s focus, as represented in her name, of getting home
safely and without further spiritual battle, is a man-made obstacle to honest, straightforward
conversation between the ships’ captains. Melville writes the tale as a secretive retelling of a
retelling, Ishmael scribbling the account as he told it in Lima a few years later, making the
information all the more haunting. The vivid parallels between the power struggles, bold
challenges against natural forces including Moby-Dick, and the devastating results of vengeful
action (Steelkilt’s calculated nearness to Radney mimics Ahab’s drive to punish the White Whale)
present on both whaling ships never reach the monomaniacal, outward-bound Ahab, whose similar
misfortune awaits.
The Jeroboam, encountered in chapter 71, named for a Biblical king who assigned golden
calves to be worshipped instead of the Lord, embodies those people who mistakenly attribute the
unknowable forces of the world to earthly objects or claim godly power as earthly. The captain of
the Jeroboam, who tells Ahab of his first mate’s death upon attacking Moby-Dick, is accompanied
by Gabriel, an insane sailor who believes himself to be the forenamed archangel and “pronounc[es]
the White Whale to be no less a being than the Shaker God incarnated” (266). Gabriel’s
interpretation of Moby-Dick’s power, and his worship of the whale instead of God, provides the
reasoning for Melville’s choice in naming the Jeroboam. Melville also reminds the reader that like
Ahab, the first mate of the Jeroboam sought out Moby-Dick with his harpoon and confidence held
high, and this spiritual defiance lead to officer Macey’s death. One evil Biblical king warns another
of the consequences of taking God’s affairs into human hands: Melville reveals the eventual
punishment that befalls any man who attempts to rise too far above his human limitations, be he
monomaniacal, insane, or otherwise. This encounter ends ominously enough, as Gabriel, refusing
to take a letter intended for the deceased first mate of the Jeroboam, predicts that Ahab shall “soon
[be] going that way” to the bottom of the sea and beyond (269).
Some time later, in chapter 81 of Moby-Dick, the Pequod encounters the inexperienced,
German Jungfrau, a whaler that has never caught a whale, whose ignorant crew goes forth chasing
a fin-back, a type of whale that cannot be caught, for Melville, perhaps this is a revelation of the
idea that some people look in the wrong places to find the truth. Ahab, desperate to the point of
asking a whaler that cannot even provide oil to light its lamps for information regarding the
whereabouts of the White Whale, displays his increasing monomania and departure from society,
making no distinction between possible sources of information. How could the appropriately
named Jungfrau, the Virgin, provide any insight into the deep powerful force occupying Ahab’s
mind? Though Ahab’s intellectual powers are more than sufficient to recognize at first glance the
German boat’s inexperience, he proceeds almost unthinkingly and interrogates the German captain.
The ships part suddenly with a sighting, leaving on a whale chase that is more successful for the
Pequod than the Jungfrau, and Ahab abandons the German sailors as they valiantly chase the fin-
back, not recognizing the futility of such an attempt. Melville’s dark irony, seen in Ahab’s
detection of the futility of the Jungfrau’s task without acknowledging the impossibility of his own
enterprise, provides a reminder that the men are not as different as Ahab would like to believe.
A second inexperienced boat, the malodorous, unhappy, slow, humorously named French
Bouton de Rose, is sniffed before it is seen by the Pequod in chapter 92, and represents those who
are distracted in the quest to understand man’s condition in an uncontrollable world. The Rose Bud,
despite the fact that two dead, sick whales are tied to her sides, suffers in silence, not making an
effort to improve its whaling abilities or learn how to approach the wide ocean’s mysteries. As
Stubb discovers, upon boarding the ship and tricking the captain into letting the Pequod obtain
valuable ambergris from one of the whales’ bowels, “they worked rather slow and talked very fast,
and seemed in anything but a good humor” (339). Beyond the anti-French sentiment expressed by
Melville’s characterization, the methods of the Rose Bud’s crew are a reminder for any person who
sulkily misallocates his time and effort. Happy-go-lucky Stubb easily takes advantage of their
ignorance, encouraging the first mate to convince the French captain to free the whales, all the
while maintaining the image of a genuinely helpful neighbor. The Rose Bud, not surprisingly, has
never heard of the White Whale, whose awesome power is out of the French ship’s reach because
the Rose Bud is unequipped to contemplate such a whale, burdened as it is trying to profit fully
from its past successes. Once the misguided Rose-Bud abandons the valuable sick whale to Stubb,
he and his crew greedily dig into the bowels to find the ambergris, an “unctuous and savory”
material used in perfume, despite the warnings of the screeching birds and Ahab’s impatient desire
to continue the hunt for Moby-Dick (350).
In contrast, the Samuel Enderby, a British ship met in a sixth gam in chapter 100 of
Melville’s Moby Dick, has encountered the White whale, yet attributes no special power to that
creature of the deep, representative of men who do not recognize that there could be truth outside
human grasp. Like Ahab, the ship’s captain has donated a limb to Moby-Dick’s mass, but unlike
the Pequod’s leader, the Englishman would just as soon keep away from the White Whale, arguing,
“ain’t one limb enough? What should I do without this other arm? […] he’s best left alone” (368).
The one-armed captain, head of a ship named for a wealthy British merchant, calmly and
thoroughly recounts his experience to the one-legged monomaniac, who can barely keep still with
excitement, but the Englishman does not approach the experience as the spiritual battle that Ahab
sees in his own relationship with the whale. When Ahab interjects his excited comments, reveling
in the interaction and highlighting his own effect on the whale – claiming credit for the harpoons
and scars decorating that wild beast – the Samuel Enderby’s captain merely continues “good-
humoredly” (365). In fact, the Englishman did not recognize that he had lost his arm to the famed
Moby-Dick for some time after the attack, but upon being made aware of the identity of his
opponent, the Samuel Enderby’s captain, looking forward to a safe and profitable return home,
forfeited two chances to repeat his attempt at capturing oil from the White Whale. To the
Englishman’s logical and reasoning mind, Moby-Dick is nothing more than an unusually profitable
catch, should you fasten him, while to Ahab, as demonstrated by his constant interruptions and
boiling blood, Moby-Dick has become much more important as the object of his revenge and as the
mask of nature’s unfair hand.
Some 15 chapters later, the Pequod comes upon a Nantucket ship, the successful
homeward-bound Bachelor, whose happy captain has heard of Moby-Dick but would not swear by
that legend, representative of those who refuse to believe in any great mysterious forces
surrounding human existence. The fully-loaded Bachelor, having enjoyed a terrifically profitable
season at sea, having lost “not enough [men] to speak of – two islanders,” does not understand the
pain of human existence, and has no reason to feel any frustration toward the forces that have
blessed its path thus far (408). Melville’s clever nomenclature, evident in the symbolic names of
each ship met by the Pequod, is similarly present in the representation of a bachelor as a carefree
and confident boat that holds no responsibility to others, like an unmarried man who cares not
about bringing home money or love to a wife and family. Following their conversation, the
Bachelor goes “cheerily before the breeze, the other [ship] stubbornly fought against it,” as Ahab
leads the Pequod into battle against the obstacles that prevent man from taking control of his
circumstances, while the Bachelor simply accepts and enjoys the good it receives, without
considering what might happen should it encounter evil or opposition (408). As Ahab watches the
untroubled Bachelor depart, he looks to a vial of sand, thinking of home, and the reader is
reminded of the contrast between sea-going and land-locked men: those who never dare to expand
their horizons or face the terror of the ocean keep the shallow happiness embodied in the Bachelor,
but those who go after the frightening forces can never return to that bliss.
 In conjunction with Melville’s symbolic naming, the Rachel – a ship that desperately
approaches the Pequod in chapter 128 of Moby-Dick – is a Nantucket whaler searching for its
captain’s young son and crying just as the Biblical Rachel, the mother of the Jewish race, lamented
the exile of her sons Joseph and Benjamin. Ahab, excited by the captain’s assertion that the Rachel
had seen the White Whale the previous day, is eager for the gam, and soon learns of the captain’s
tragic loss, the whaleboat his son had served having been lost as it fastened Moby-Dick, forcing the
innocent Rachel to contemplate the brutal, uncaring forces that can so quickly turn lives upside-
down. The devastated captain, known to Ahab, requests the Pequod’s assistance in searching for
the boy, but Ahab, focused only on his battle plans, convinced he can challenge God, and
increasingly estranged from societal concerns, denies his friend any aid. “God bless ye, man, and
may I forgive myself, but I must go,” Ahab hurriedly tells the Rachel’s commander before
abandoning the woeful ship (436). The Pequod’s captain, arrogant to the point of favoring self-
forgiveness over divine pardon, chooses to fight a symbol of divine power rather than give up
forty-eight hours to a humane search he believes to be futile, leaving the Rachel’s captain “without
comfort … weeping for her children because they were not” (436).
The Pequod soon encounters the “miserably misnamed” Delight, a dismal, damaged
Nantucket whaler burying men at sea, a representative of those people who seek out the truth about
the mortal condition, but whose discovery leads to sadness rather than strength (441). The Pequod
again meets a ship that battled the White Whale only a day prior to a gam, and again is presented
with warning signs that Ahab refuses to heed: the wrecked whaleboat in plain sight on the
Delight’s deck, the silent crew sewing a body bag around a peer, and the very symbol of death
resting quietly on his own ship. Despite the Delight’s attempt to sway the Pequod from its sole
desire, Ahab turns away quickly, but hears the defeated captain remind the outward-bound ship that
the Pequod, limited by its crew’s humanity, cannot escape the natural forces at work on the sea,
saying, “In vain, oh, ye strangers, ye fly our sad burial, ye but turn us your taffrail to show us your
coffin!” (442). Melville comments morosely on man’s powerlessness as he presents two brave
Nantucket ships and their unsuccessful attempts to control Moby-Dick and convert the pure
creature into lamp oil, an impossible task for such a lowly being as man. Ahab’s only hope after
the numerous warnings presented by the gams rests in Fedallah – the fortune teller employed by the
captain who cannot resist the urge to know the future – the harpoon devilishly prepared for the
chase, and Ahab’s god-like confidence in his personal ability.
The Pequod, alone and separated from society during the three-day-long chase for Moby-
Dick, fails to kill the White Whale, a task which the Rachel, the Jeroboam, the Samuel Enderby,
the Delight, the Town-Ho, and possibly the Goney have attempted, though with differing degrees of
will and understanding. Try as he may, man cannot defeat God’s overpowering plan, and only by
chance can he survive at all in this world. Ishmael, by chance the sole survivor out of the Pequod’s
crew, is saved by a coffin and “the devious-cruising Rachel,” as Melville reveals in an epilogue
with a heading from the Book of Job (470). The very ship that Ahab refused to help in a practical
manner (his aim to rid the earth of suffering encompassed the ship’s captain, but in a less
immediate fashion) comes to the rescue and ensures that a record of the hero’s final days should be
kept as both a warning and an inspiration to those who question God’s ways. That record,
including the structural, Biblical, symbolic gams, provides a testament to a single battle in man’s
uneven struggle, as Ahab alone dares to defiantly face what he sees as evil in the world.

Works Cited

Auden, W. H. “The Romantic Use of Symbols.” Twentieth Century Interpretations of Moby-Dick.” Ed.
Michael T. Gilmore. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1977. 9-12.

Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. New York, New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1967.
Reading Section 5

Chapters 87 - Epilogue

Read straight through to the end. Melville has introduced his conflicts and themes. Ishmael has become
transcendental in his descriptions.

Continue to note how the literal is a springboard to the abstract. Reality is a mask for the illusion.

Chapters 87 - 109

In these chapters we gain further insight into the characters and personalities of both Ahab and Starbuck.
In this section Little Pip crosses the line into irrationality, and Ahab becomes his protector.

Chapters 110 - 130

Events become darkly ominous. Queequeg lies in his coffin. Note the imagery in Ch. 112, The
Blacksmith, and Ch. 113, The Forge.
The Pequod Meets the Rachel, Ch. 128, is a final reflection on Ahab's monomania. Rachel is a Biblical
allusion.

Chapters 131 - Epilogue

Do you think the ending is fanciful, not really possible? Actually, the possibility and reality of it
happening in this way is told in tales of whalers. The story of the sinking of the whale ship, Essex, as
recorded by First Mate Owen Chase in 1821, was a gripping tale read by many, including a young
Herman Melville. The recent movie, In the Heart of the Sea, is the story of the voyage and destruction of
the Essex.

ALLUSIONS IN MOBY DICK

Chapter 1
Ishmael: 1) Biblical--son of Abraham; an exile.
2) Ishmael ben Elisha--2nd century A.D. Jewish teacher of Galilee; outstanding Talmudic teacher; compiled the 13 hermeneutical
rules for interpreting the Torah; founded a school which produced the legal commentary, Mekhilta.

Cato: A Shakespearean character in Julius Caesar; committed suicide by falling on his sword.

Seneca and the Stoics

Seneca--among Rome's leading intellectual figures in the mid-1st century AD. He and Epictetus were leading voices of Stoicism. Stoics--Greek
school of philosophy holding that human beings should be free from passion and calmly accept all occurrences as the unavoidable result of divine
will.

Narcissus: Greek mythology--young man who fell in love with his own image in a pool of water and either wasted away or fell into the pool and
drowned.

Fates: 1) Greek mythology--the three goddesses who govern human destiny. While one sister dictates the events of an individual's life,
another sister weaves them into a tapestry on the Loom of Life, and the third sister stands ready with a pair of shears to cut the thread,
thus ending the life.
2) Predestination.

Tyre of Carthage: A principal port founded by the Phoenicians, among the greatest seafarers of the ancient world.

Euroclydon: Biblical (Acts 27:14)--the tempestuous east wind that shipwrecked Paul off the coast of Malta.

Moluccas: Spice Islands between Celebes and New Guinea.

Chapter 2
Black Parliament sitting in Tophet
1) Biblical (Jer. 7:31)--Tophet was a shrine in the valley of Hinnom south of ancient Jerusalem where human sacrifices, especially those of
children, were performed to Moloch.
2) Hell.

Lazarus: Biblical (Luke 16: 19-31)--the diseased beggar in the parable of the rich man and the beggar.

Sumatra: The second largest island of Indonesia lying in the Indian Ocean west of Malaysia and Borneo by Sunda Strait.

Chapter 3
Hyperborean: 1) Greek--Hyperboa was one known to the ancient Greeks from the earliest times. He lived in an unidentified
country in the far north and was renowned as a pious and divinely favored adherent of the cult of Apollo.
2) very cold; frigid; north wind.

Jonah: Biblical (Book of Jonah)--an intolerant, unwilling servant of God. He was called by God to go to Nineveh and prophesy disaster because
of the city's wickedness. He did not want to go and took passage in a ship at Joppa going in the opposite direction, thus escaping God's command.
At sea, Jonah admits to the crew that it is his fault that a storm is about to destroy the ship. They throw him overboard. Jonah is swallowed by a
great fish and stays inside it for three days and three nights. He prays for deliverance. He is vomited onto land and goes to Ninevah, as God had
commanded.

Chapter 4
Cretan labyrinth: Greek--the building containing a maze which Daedalus constructed for King Minos of Crete as a place in which to confine
the Minotaur. Those put in the maze could not find their way out and were destroyed by the Minotaur. Theseus was the only one to escape.

Chapter 6
Canaan: Biblical--the land promised to Moses and his people by God after they fled from Egypt. It was a land of milk and honey.

Herr Alexander: Alexander the Great, the military mastermind who conquered the majority of the known world during the years 336-330 B.C.
Because of his tactical genius, he was able to accomplish his conquest without superiority of numbers.

Chapter 7
Pequod: also spelled Pequot and Pequoits; an American Indian tribe which was destroyed by the Puritans.

Cave of Elephanta: an isle off the western coast of India in Bombay Harbor famous for its 8th century temple caves carved out of rock, its walls
sculpted with figures of Hindu deities.

Chapter 8
Victory's plank where Nelson fell: Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was a British naval officer and national hero. His ship, Victory, was involved
in a battle with the French. Someone on the French ship, Redoutalde, shot Nelson and broke his spine. Nelson died as the British won by
annihilating the French.

Chapter 16
Medes: Inhabitants of ancient Media, a country northwest of Persia and south of Caspian Sea; an independent country and an empire at its
height; conquered Babylon and Assyria; overthrown by Persian Cyprus.

Canterbury Cathedral where Beckett died: British--Thomas Beckett was named archbishop of Canterbury by Henry and became an
uncompromising defender of the rights of the church against lay powers; refused to seal the constitution of Clarendon and fled to France.
Persuaded Pope Alexander III to suspend bishops who crowned Prince Henry and force the king to reconciliation. Beckett was murdered in the
cathedral by four knights of Henry's court. He was later canonized.

Chapter 18
Philistine
1) Biblical--a people who held the coastal area of southern Palestine and were frequently at war with the Israelites in the period of the judges and
the early years of the monarchy.
2) A smug, ignorant, especially middle class, person, who is held to be indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values; boorish;
barbarous.

Chapter 19
Elijah the prophet: Biblical (I Kings)--Hebrew prophet of the 9th century B.C.; lived during the time of Ahab, king of Israel. In his first
recorded act, Elijah appeared before the evil King Ahab and predicted a severe drought. The drought occurred. After more than three years, the
prophet came once more to Ahab and placed the blame for the famine on the king's sinful policies. Later, Elijah came in the vineyard of Naboth
after the king had secured the land through the wickedness of his wife, Jezebel. Elijah placed a terrible curse on King Ahab and his descendants,
promising that the entire house of Ahab would be exterminated. This prophecy was brutally fulfilled.

Chapter 24
Job (pronounced Jobe): Biblical (Book of Job)--the upright, God-fearing and good man of Uz, who was made to suffer greatly when God
tested his faith and loyalty by allowing Satan to have his way with him. Despite his undeserving misfortunes, Job remained steadfast and faithful.
In the end, God restored his substance to him and granted him happiness and prosperity. Job's patience in the face of suffering is proverbial.
Alfred the Great: Ruler of Wessex, 870's, who drove the Norse out of England. He is famous for his cleverness, as he paid the Vikings to leave
England for a certain period of time, during which he raised the proper military to defeat them.

Edmund Burke: English politician in the time of King George III; famous for defending liberty and justice.

Chapter 26
John Bunyan: 1628-1688; English preacher; author of Pilgrim's Progress; one of the greatest literary geniuses of the Puritan movement in
England.

Cervantes: A soldier until his hand was maimed by gunshot wounds and he was unable to fight; afterward, over his next twenty years, he
became a brilliant author of novels, plays, and tales.

Andrew Jackson: Seventh President of the U.S.A. (1829-1837); the first poor man to rise to become President; known as the "people's
President."

Chapter 32
Folio: book formed by folding a sheet of paper once; size of book is usually about 11 inches.

Chapter 35
Platonist: 1) One who accepts and adheres to the philosophical thought of Plato.
2) Abstractionist .

Descartian vortices: 1) Descartes the philosopher believed that everything had to be proven rationally; he based his proof of
identity on the theory, "I think; therefore, I am."
2) vortice--situation drawing into its center all that surrounds it (i.e. whirlpool effect).

Pantheist: One who believes that God is all forces and powers of the universe; God in Nature, or God is Nature.

Chapter 38
Iron Cross of Lombardy: An ancient crown, supposedly made from one of the nails from the True Cross, used notably at the coronation of
Holy Roman Emperors and at the coronation of Napoleon in 1805.

Chapter 40
Pirohitee's peak: Melville gives this descriptive reference to Pirohitee's peak in Omoo, Chapter 18: "Tahiti is by far the most famous island in
the South Seas; indeed, a variety of causes has made it almost classic. Its natural features alone distinguish it from the surrounding groups. Two
round and lofty promontories, whose mountains rise nine thousand feet above the level of the ocean, are connected by a low, narrow isthmus; the
whole being some one hundred miles in circuit.”

From the great central peaks of the larger peninsula—Orohena, Aorai, and Pirohitee—the land radiates on all sides to the sea in sloping
green ridges. Between these are broad and shadowy valleys—in aspect, each a Tempe—watered with fine streams, and thickly wooded. Unlike
many of the other islands, there extends nearly all round Tahiti a belt of low, alluvial soil, teeming with the richest vegetation. Here, chiefly, the
natives dwell."

Chapter 47
Loom of Time: Greek mythology (see Fates in Chapter 1).

Chapter 54
Mark Antony and Cleopatra: One of the most famous romances in history. Supposedly, the marriage ruined Mark Antony's life and ultimately
caused him to take it.

Chapter 58
terra incognita: Latin--unknown land.

Chapter 70
the giant Holofernes and Judith: Judith is the title of a book in the Apochrypha as well as the name of a Jewess from Bethulia. Holofernes was
a general of the Assyrian king Nebuchadnezzar. To save her city, Judith killed Holofernes in his drunken slumber and showed his head to her
countrymen. They then drove off the Assyrians.

Chapter 71
Neskyeuna Shakers: In 1776, Mother Anne Lee established the first settlement of American "Shakers" (the Millennial Church or United Society
of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing) at Niskayuna, a village in New York, on the Hudson River near Schenectady. The shakers observed
celibacy, held all property in common, and believed that Mother Lee was Christ reincarnated. Their nickname, Shakers, derived from their
peculiar bodily movements during religious meetings.

Gabriel: Biblical--masculine given name meaning "man of God"; an archangel who acts as the messenger of God.

Chapter 73
Immanuel Kant vs. John Locke
Kant and Locke both expressed agreement with the idea that the State is formed by a social contract--Individuals must give up some of their
rights to enter into a social contract in society. However, they differed on the application of the idea. Kant does not recognize the right of
individuals to revoke the contract. Locke maintained that the state formed by the social contract was guided by the natural law, which guarantees
inalienable rights. He formulated the doctrine that revolution in some circumstances is not only a right but an obligation. If the State fails to
protect the individuals' inalienable rights, then revolution is a duty.

Chapter 80
Sphinx: 1) Egyptian mythology--a figure having the body of a lion and the head of a man, ram, or hawk.
2) Greek mythology--a winged monster having the head of a woman and the body of a lion that destroyed all who could not answer
its riddle.

Chapter 82
Perseus: Greek--Andromeda, the daughter of a king, was tied to a rock on the sea coast and a whale came to carry her away. Perseus killed the
whale and married Andromeda.

St. George and his Dragon: Probably third century A.D. Christian martyr. Nothing definite is known about his life. In time of Edward II
adopted as patron saint of England. Among legends developed about him was that of his conquest of a dragon to rescue the king's daughter,
Sabra.

Ezekiel 32:2--Biblical--"Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the
nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their
rivers."

I Samuel 5:2-4--Biblical--"Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next
day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the
following morning when they rose, there was Dagon fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been
broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained."

Quotations from Moby Dick

The speaker is the narrator, Ishmael, unless otherwise noted.
Chapter 1 The Loomings
Call me Ishmael.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself
involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an
upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking
people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish,
Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

...and so the universal thump is passed round, and all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades, and be content.

Chapter 2 The Carpet-Bag

But it's too late to make any improvements now. The universe is finished; the copestone is on, and the chips were carted off a million years ago.

Chapter 7 The Chapel

...how it is that we still refuse to be comforted for those who we nevertheless maintain are dwelling in unspeakeable bliss; why all the living so
strive to hush all the dead; wherefore but the rumor of a knocking in a tomb will terrify a whole city. All these things are not without their
meanings. But Faith like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.

Methinks we have hugely mistaken this matter of Life and Death. Methinks that what they call my shadow here on earth is my true
substance...Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will take it I say, it is not me.

Chapter 8 The Pulpit

...for the pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world.

Chapter 9 The Sermon

...if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.

Chapter 13 Wheelbarrow
It's a mutual, joint-stock world, in all meridians. We cannibals must help these Christians.

Chapter 16 The Ship

For all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness. Be sure of this, O young ambition, all mortal greatness is but disease.

He's a grand, ungodly, god-like man, Captain Ahab....

...Ahab has his humanities.

Chapter 17 The Ramadan
...Heaven have mercy on us all--Presbyterians and Pagans alike--for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need
mending.

Chapter 20 All Astir

...when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensiby strives to cover up his
suspicions even from himself.

Chapter 23 The Lee Shore

...all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea.

Chapter 24 The Advocate

For what are the comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked terrors and wonders of God?

Chapter 26 Knights and Squires

...an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.

Chapter 28 Ahab
...moody stricken Ahab stood before them with a crucifixion in his face; in all the nameless regal overbearing dignity of some mighty woe.

Chapter 29 Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb

Old age is always wakeful; as if, the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death.

Chapter 33 The Speksynder

For be a man's intellectual superiority what it will, it can never assume the practical, available supremacy over other men, without the aid of some
sort of external arts and entrenchments....

Oh, Ahab! what shall be grand in thee, it must needs be plucked at from the skies, and dived for in the deep, and featured in the unbodied air!

Chapter 34 The Cabin Table

...Ahab's soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!

Chapter 35 The Masthead

... lulled into such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with
thoughts, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless
soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every dimly-discovered, uprising fin of
some undiscernible form, seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it. In
this enchanted mood, thy spirit ebbs away to whence it came; becomes diffused through time and space; like Cranmer's sprinkled Pantheistic
ashes, forming at last a part of every shore the round globe over. There is no life in thee, now, except that rocking life imparted by a gently rolling
ship; by her, borrowed from the sea; by the sea, from the inscrutable tides of God. But while this sleep, this dream is on ye, move your foot or
hand an inch; slip your hold at all; and your identity comes back in horror. Over Descartian vortices you hover. And perhaps, at mid-day, in the
fairest weather, with one half-throttled shriek you drop through that transparent air into the summer sea, no more to rise for ever. Heed it well, ye
Pantheists!

Chapter 36 The Quarter-Deck

"D'ye mark him, Flask?" whispered Stubb; "the chick that's in him pecks the shell. T'will soon be out."

"Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing,
Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous."

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks...If a man will strike, strike through the mask! (Ahab).

Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me (Ahab).

Who's over me? Truth hath no confines (Ahab).

Chapter 37 Sunset
Gifted with high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most subtly and most malignantly! damned in the midst of
Paradise! (Ahab).

Oh, hard! that to fire others, the match itself must needs be wasting! (Ahab).

What I've dared, I've willed; and what I've willed, I'll do! (Ahab).

Chapter 38 Dusk
Oh, life! 'tis in an hour like this, with soul beat down and held to knowledge, -as wild, untutored things are forced to feed-Oh, life! 'tis now that I
do feel the latent horror in thee! (Starbuck).

Chapter 39 First Night-Watch

HA! ha! ha! ha! hem! clear my throat!--I've been thinking over it ever since, and that ha, HA's the final consequence. Why so? Because a laugh's
the wisest, easiest answer to all that's queer; and come what will, one comfort's always left--that unfailing comfort is, it's all predestinated
(Stubbs).

I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing ( Stubbs).

Chapter 40 Midnight, Forecastle

Oh, thou big white God aloft there somewhere in yon darkness, have mercy on this small black boy down here; preserve him from all men that
have no bowels to feel fear! (Pip).

Chapter 41 Moby Dick

I, Ishmael, was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs; and stronger I shouted, and more did
I hammer and clinch my oath, because of the dread in my soul. A wild, mystical, sympathetical feeling was in me; Ahab's quenchless feud
seemed mine.

...immortality is but ubiquity in time...

...all this to explain, would be to dive deeper than Ishmael can go. The subterranean miner that works in us all, how can one tell whither leads his
shaft by the ever shifting, muffled sound of his pick? Who does not feel the irresistible arm drag? What skiff in tow of a seventy-four can stand
still? For one, I gave myself up to the abandonment of the time and the place; but while yet all a-rush to encounter the whale, could see naught in
that brute but the deadliest ill.

Chapter 42 The Whiteness of the Whale

Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright.

...all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within...

Chapter 44 The Chart

God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and he whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds
upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates.

Chapter 49 The Hyena

There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes thiswhole universe for a vast practical joke,
though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.

Chapter 53 The Albatross

But in pursuit of those far mysteries we dream of, or in tormented chase of that demon phantom that, some time or other, swims before all human
hearts; while chasing such over this round globe, they either lead us on in barren mazes or midway leave us whelmed.

Chapter 54 The Town Ho's Story

Now, as you well know, it is not seldom the case in this conventional world of ours--watery or otherwise; that when a person placed in command
over his fellow-men finds one of them to be very significantly his superior in general pride of manhood, straightway against that man he
conceives an unconquerable dislike and bitterness; and if he have a chance he will pull down and pulverize that subaltern's tower, and make a
little heap of dust of it.

Chapter 59 Brit
...as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by
all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!

Chapter 61 The Line

All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death,
that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life.

Chapter 63 The Dart

To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooneers of this world must start to their feet from out of idleness, and not from out of toil.

Chapter 68 The Blanket

Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be
cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter's, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a
temperature of thine own.

Chapter 72 The Monkey-Rope

...I seemed distinctly to perceive that my own individuality was now merged in a joint stock company of two: that my free will had received a
mortal wound; and that another's mistake or misfortune might plunge innocent me into unmerited disaster and death.
Chapter 73 Stubb and Flask Kill a Right Whale; and Then Have a Talk Over Him
So, when on one side you hoist in Locke's head, you go over that way; but now, on the other side, hoist in Kant's and you come back again; but in
very poor plight. Thus, some minds for ever keep trimming boat. Oh, ye foolish! throw all these thunderheads overboard, and then you will float
light and right.

Chapter 74 The Sperm Whale's Head--Contrasted View

The whale, therefore, must see one distinct picture on this side, and another distinct picture on that side; while all between must be profound
darkness and nothingness to him. Is it not curious, that so vast a being as the whale should see the world through so small an eye, and hear the
thunder through an ear which is smaller than a hare's? But if his eyes were broad as the lens of Herschel's great telescope; and his ears capacious
as the porches of cathedrals; would that make him any longer of sight, or sharper of hearing? Not at all.--Why then do you try to "enlarge" your
mind? Subtilize it.

Chapter 79 The Prairie

I try all things; I achieve what I can.

Chapter 80 The Nut

The whale, like all things that are mighty, wears a false brow to the common world. For I believe that much of a man's character will be found
betokened in his backbone. I would rather feel your spine than your skull, whoever you are. A thin joist of a spine never yet upheld a full and
noble soul.

Chapter 85 The Fountain

Doubts of all things earthly, and intuitions of some things heavenly; this combination makes neither believer nor infidel, but makes a man who
regards them both with equal eye.

Chapter 86 The Tail

Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it; and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength had much to do with the
magic.

Chapter 87 The Grand Armada

...withhold any amazement at the strangely galled whales before us, for there is no folly of the beasts of the earth which is not infinitely outdone
by the madness of men.

...amid the tornadoed Atlantic of my being, do I myself still for ever centrally disport in mute calm; and while ponderous planets of unwaning
woe revolve round me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in eternal mildness of joy.

Chapter 89 Fast-Fish and Loose-Fish I.

A Fast-Fish belongs to the party fast to it...... What are the sinews and souls of Russian serfs and Republican slaves but Fast-Fish, whereof
possession is the whole of the law?......

..... II. A Loose-Fish is fair game for anybody who can soonest catch it...... What was America in 1492 but a Loose-Fish...? What are the Rights of
Man and the Liberties of the World but Loose-Fish? What all men's minds and opinions but Loose-Fish?...

And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?

Chapter 96 The Try-Works

Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is
madness. And there is a Catskill eagle in some souls that can alike dive down into the blackest gorges, and soar out of them again and become
invisible in the sunny spaces. And even if he for ever flies within the gorge, that gorge is in the mountains; so that even in his lowest swoop the
mountain eagle is still higher than other birds upon the plain, even though they soar.

Chapter 99 The Doubloon

And some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth...

Born in throes, 't is fit that man should live in pains and die in pangs! So be it, then! Here's stout stuff for we to work on. So be it, then.

Chapter 104 The Fossil Whale

Such, and so magnifying, is the virtue of a large and liberal theme! We expand to its bulk. To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty
theme.

No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.

Chapter 106 Ahab's Leg

...all miserable events do naturally beget their like.. Yea, more than equally...since both the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the
ancestry and posterity of Joy. ...in the face of all the glad, hay-making suns, and soft-cymballing, round harvest-moons, we must needs give in to
this: that the gods themselves are not for ever glad. The ineffaceable, sad birth-mark in the brow of man, is but the stamp of sorrow in the signers.

Chapter 107 The Carpenter

Seat thy self sultanically among the moons of Saturn, and take high abstracted man alone; and he seems a wonder, a grandeur, and a woe. But
from the same point, take mankind in mass, and for the most part, they seem a mob of unnecessary duplicates, both contemporary and hereditary.

Chapter 109 Ahab and Starbuck in the Cabin

...let Ahab beware of Ahab; beware of thyself, old man (Starbuck).

Chapter 110 Queequeq in His Coffin

Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head.

...whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books.

Chapter 113 The Forge

In no Paradise myself, I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say why dost thou not go mad?
How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?... (Ahab).

Oh, Pip! thy wretched laugh;, thy idle but unresting eye; all thy strange mummeries not unmeaningly blended with the black tragedy of the
melancholy ship, and mocked it!

Chapter 114 The Gilder

...the mingled, mingling threads of life are woven by warp and woof; calms crossed by storms, a storm for every calm.

There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause:--through infancy's
unconscious spell, boyhood's thoughtless faith, adolescence' doubt..., then scepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood's pondering
repose of If.

Where lies the final harbor whence we unmoor no more?

...Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there
to learn it. Let faith oust fact; let fancy oust memory; I look deep down and do believe (Ahab).

Chapter 125 The Log and Line

Lo! ye believers in gods all goodness, and in man all ill, lo you! see the omniscient gods oblivious of suffering man; and man, though idiotic, and
knowing not what he does, yet full of the sweet things of love and gratitude (Ahab).

Chapter 127 The Life-Buoy

Now, then, Pip, we'll talk this over; I do suck most wondrous philosophies from thee! Some unknown conduits from the unknown worlds must
empty into thee! (Ahab).

Chapter 128 The Pequod Meets the Rachel

Hast seen the White Whale? (Ahab to Captain of Rachel).

Chapter 132 The Symphony

From beneath his slouched hat Ahab dropped a tear into the sea; nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop.

Chapter 134 The Chase the Second Day

Aye, aye, Starbuck, 'tis sweet to lean sometimes, be the leaner who he will; and would old Ahab had leaned oftener than he has (Ahab to
Starbuck).

Ahab is for ever Ahab, man. this whole act's immutably decreed. 'Twas rehearsed by thee and me a billion years before this ocean rolled. Fool! I
am the Fates' lieutenant; I act under orders (Ahab to Starbuck).

Chapter 135 The Chase the Third Day

The ship? Great God, where is the ship?" (unidentified crew member).

Epilogue
"AND I ONLY AM ESCAPED ALONE TO TELL THEE" (Job). The drama's done. Why then here does any one step forth?--Because one did
survive the wreck."