Ahab Says of Himself Herman Term Paper

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But 'tis enough."(Melville, 161-162) the comparison of the whale with a wall emphasizes Ahab's maddening endeavor to break the ultimate resistance of truth and conquer it. Thus, he is not fascinated like Ishmael by the metaphysical, he wants to own it and vanquish it: "That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me."(Melville, 162) in Ahab's struggle with the inscrutable, he never ceases to be a personality himself, refusing to be daunted by its overwhelming force. The ultimate desire to kill the whale shows Ahab's obsession with obtaining an absolute victory over the unknown. The captain is obviously haunted by the same high perception of reality as Ishmael is, with the addition that his strife is extremely personal.

Starbuck on the other hand, is humane and animated by common sense rather than by a high perception of things. For him, Ahab's mad quest is blasphemous and irrational: "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.

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'"(Melville, 162) Melville thus emphasizes the humaneness of Starbuck, who obstinately believes in life despite the horrors he witnesses on his travels with Ahab: "For again Starbuck's downcast eyes lighted up with the stubbornness of life..."(Melville, 163) He evidently struggles to escape the influence is his captain, and to maintain his normality and his capacity to enjoy life: "Methinks it pictures life. Foremost through the sparkling sea shoots on the gay, embattled, bantering bow, but only to drag dark Ahab after it... Oh, life! 'tis now that I do feel the latent horror in thee! But 'tis not me! that horror's out of me! And with the soft feeling of the human in me, yet will I try to fight ye, ye grim, phantom futures!"(Melville, 168)

Thus, the four main characters in Moby Dick are all philosophers more or less. Ishmael and Ahab however are definitely lost in their metaphysical quests, while Queequeg and Starbuck preserve their humaneness and their capacity to bear their existence as well as that of the world in a natural way.

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