Moby Dick or Captain Ahab?

Question

Who is the evil one?
Give your reasons too, not just: Captain Ahab is evil.
Personally, Ahab IS evil. He brings himself to go on this revenge-seeking voyage at the expense of the Pequod's sailors. The while whale, Moby Dick is a symbol of unforeseen knowledge, this presense of good, the purity of nature...
Thanks for your opinions!

Answer 1

According to Ahab, neither. This line sums up his attitude about his role in the "obssession":

“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.”

If he's right, the entire scenario has been predestined. It may be that things are not what they seem; i.e. if it is an allegory, the white whale may be a symbol for something or other. But to Ahab, such deeper meanings, if present, are irrelevant in the face of predestination.

The symbolism is certainly thick, though. Ahab drowns as a result of being bound to the whale by harpoon lines when it dives. Shortly after that, the whale resurfaces for a moment with Ahab in full view, tied to the side of the whale in a pose remeniscent of Christ on the cross.

What does it mean, if anything? Some Melville scholars suggest that, in this episode at least, the white whale is God delivering his sacrifice to the drama.

This can get pretty heady. Probably a better place to research something like this on the Internet is Wikipedia, and the associated links included with this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_dick

You've taken on a huge task, about which the literati are still arguing today. There are tons of interesting things written about the novel, but if you're looking for a definitive conclusion about the roles of good and evil, well...

Good luck!

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

I like your Moby Dick question, but you already haved several fascinating answers, so I'm gonna by-pass this one.

As several of your answerers indicate, Moby Dick (to me, at least) is really about two huge natural monsters: Moby Dick himself, or Nature, and Ahab himself, or Human Nature. The ship's crew is pitted against them both, just as we all are in other way or another.

However, I must admit I have never been able to think of Moby Dick as THE great American novel. Huck Finn gets that nod from me. For Melville, I like several shorter pieces better, esp. Billy Budd, "Bartleby the Scrivener," and "Benito Cereno." I really like Robert Lowell's dramatization of some of these in Old Glory, which doesn't get much attention these days.

But there were a few decades during which the US did indeed declare its independence from European literature. None of these works, I'm convinced, could ever have been conceived or written anywhere else: Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar and Essays (1&2); Thoreau, Walden; Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter; Poe, short stories; Melville, Moby Dick; Whitman, Leaves of Grass; then, Twain, Huck Finn; and all of Emily Dickinson!! The works of each one was a literary Declaration of Independence.

Answer 4

Neither is evil. Moby Dick is an animal and incapable and practicing evil. Ahab is a man obsessed. Yes, he sacrificed his men for his vengeance, but he drove them no harder than he drove himself, and you have to remember that they agreed to this mission (near the beginning of the novel, in the scene with the great storm). Even Starbuck was drawn in against his better intentions. This is what makes MD such a vast and complex story, a true classic.

Answer 5

I wouldn't say either one was evil. Moby Dick was just being a whale, and Capt. Ahab was just being a whaler. Ahab may have gone overboard in his vengeant hunt of the white whale, but it was just another hunt for another whale. Moby Dick may have done more than your average whale would do to defend himself, but he was just defending himself.

Answer 6

F Ahab go Moby

Answer 7

Ahab is evil. Whale is just a swimmin' round!

Answer 8

Is Ahab truly evil? He seems more posessed than evil to me. He is on the ultimate quest. The whale is his holy grail and he will stop at nothing to reach his goal.

Answer 9

I hate that damn whale. My boy Ahab just wants to get his sweet revenge against a son of a ***** whale that keeps tormenting him.

Answer 10

niether.i think(according to the Freudian theory)ahab is simply the symbol of Id(shows this in his pleasure of killing the whale)
so he is sticking to a geart part of his unconscious and can't be taken for the Aristotelian evil.(maybe misguided!)
the whale can also be the presence of Ego.for it moves btween
ahab and the priest on the ship(can't remember his name)
who is the representation of Super ego(serves as a foil to take us to other features of the characters)