Moby-Dick evil in men

One of eight children of a merchant of distinguished lineage, Herman Melville was a New Yorker, born in 1819. His father, however, lost all his money and died when the boy was 12. Herman left school at 15, worked briefly as a bank clerk, and in 1837 went to sea. He was crewman on the whaler Acushnet for 18 months, in 1841 and 1842. Then he jumped ship in the South Seas. For a time he lived among a tribe of cannibals in the Marquesas. Later he made his way to Tahiti where he idled away nearly a year. After another year at sea he returned to America in the fall of 1844.

Moby-Dick or The Whale is considered to be one of the great american novels

and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whale ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab has one purpose on this voyage: to seek out Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white sperm whale. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg, which now drives Ahab to take revenge. The cetacean also attacked the Rachel and killed the captain's son. He is considered to be a symbol of a number of things, among them God, nature, fate, the ocean, and the very universe itself. Melville employs stylized language, symbolism, and the metaphor to explore numerous complex themes in Moby-Dick. The enigmatic white sperm whale, Moby Dick, is ruthless in attacking the sailors who attempt to hunt and kill him, but it is Ahab who invests Moby Dick's natural instincts with malignant and evil intentions. The moral ambiguity of the universe is prevalent throughout Melville's Moby Dick. None of the characters represent pure evil or pure goodness. Even Melville's description of Ahab, whom he repeatedly refers to "monomaniacal," suggesting an amorality or psychosis, is given a chance to be seen as a frail, sympathetic character. Melvilles primary focus in his classic novel Moby-Dick is the evil of mankind, a point of focus consistent with his anti-Transcendental philosophical alignment. In Moby-Dick, Melville illustrates mans feelings of evil toward fellow man and nature through his thoroughly developed plot and character. Melville also illustrated this

in the components of the thematic layer which underlies almost every characters personal motives. Analysis of Melvilles own motives helps to clarify the authors reasoning behind each of the examples of mans evil in his novel. In order to fully understand his antiTranscendental belief, it is necessary to first comprehend the origin of antiTranscendentalism. The natural opposition to a theory of mans general benevolence is one of his malevolence toward everything around him; the primary idea behind antiTranscendentalism was all human people have a capacity for evil and that, given the proper circumstances the evil in anyone would come forth in their actions. The entire story revolves around the evil of man, which is demonstrated in practically each person portrayed in the book. The story itself is about man being pitted against nature, as though the two were never meant to coincide peacefully. The men on the ship must fend for themselves against the harsh maritime weather and the believably evil whales which they hunt. Ishmael further distinguishes himself from the rest of the crew by being the sole non-exploiter of whales in general. Melville makes it clear early on that Ishmael initially chooses to ship on the Pequod for the experiential value of whaling. It has been indicated that his outlook on the whale is the only significantly benign one. Whereas Ishmael is terrified by the "whiteness of the whale," Stubb sees economic gain in the valuable whale oil, subtly hinted at by his overbearing gloating upon his first kill. In the harpooners, we see a violent savageness, even in Queequeg's otherwise loving nature. To Ahab, the whale is a emblem of pure evil. In addition to this collective evil of the people on the ship, many of the individuals are shining examples of humanitys evil themselves. Captain Ahab, the primary character in the book, makes the sole dedication in his life one of vengeance on the great white whale after which the novel was named. Ahab does, at times, show that he has a less wicked side, but in the end, the evil half of him overcomes his goodness.

By ending the book so curtly, Melville makes a virtually negligible attempt at denouement, leaving what value judgments exist to the reader. Ultimately, it is the dichotomy between the respective fortunes of Ishmael and Ahab that the reader is left with. Herein lies a greater moral ambiguity than is previously suggested. Moby-Dick is clearly more than just the story of a formidable sea creature and a crazy peg-legged ships captain; it is an expression of the authors thoughts of the evil, which resides in all mens hearts. Melvilles faith in the theories of antiTranscendentalism is the guiding principle upon which his most famous work is based. As Melville's work became more profound, it lost its appeal to the average reader, and its originality and symbolic meaning escaped most of the critics. Moby-Dick, his masterpiece, received little attention and most of that unfavorable. He kept on writing until his death in 1891 but was virtually ignored. Only in the 1920s did the critics rediscover him and give him his merited place in the history of American literature.