Moby Dick

The major line of narrative action in Moby-Dick deals with the obsession of Captain Ahab, a whaling ship's captain, to search the oceans for a white whale he has named Moby-Dick, which maimed him on a previous voyage. Ahab's determination to exact revenge leads him to repeatedly shift course at sea until he finds the whale -- for which he is no match. Except for Ishmael, a shipmate who tells the story, Ahab and all on the whaler, the Pequod, are lost when the frenzied white whale rams it.

The biblical underpinnings of Moby-Dick can be discerned in two major ways. The story, though narrated by the rather urbane schoolmaster Ishmael, is organized around incidents involving extreme forces, urgent emotions, and the highest of stakes, not unlike the violent stories of the Old Testament or the outrageous images of the book of Revelation in the New Testament. Aside from that are myriad allusions to specific texts, characters, incidents, and images in the Bible. Chiefly the referents are from the Old Testame

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ion is pathological, and if it lends determination to Ahab it also more or less drives him mad. The old sailor Elijah refers to Ahab as "Old Thunder" (92), which suggests a certain amount of bluster in his comportment that can be contrasted with Queequeg, the even-tempered pagan-Muslim-cannibal harpooner and companion who is of royal blood and aristocratic temperament and generally behaves accordingly. The tightness of the biblical allusion to King Ahab in the bible, as well as the implication that disaster is looming for the captain, is confirmed by the appearance of the old sailor Elijah as Ishmael and Queequeg prepare to board the Pequod for duty. The prophet Elijah figures prominently in the Ahab-Jezebel story, and he functions in 1 Kings much as the sailor Elijah does in Moby-Dick. Whereas in 1 Kings prophet Elijah rebukes King Ahab for abandoning Jahweh, the old sailor Elijah attempts to discourage Ishmael and Queequeg from sticking with the Pequod's Ahab. The whole effect is to set up a mood of foreboding that is paid off when the captain proves himself to be obsessed with the white whale. Just as King Ahab perishes in a battle to the death over the divided kingdoms of the Jews, Captain Ahab perishes in the ultimate battle
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Captain Ahab, Captain Ahab's, God Melville, Father Mapple, King Ahab, Moby Dick, Ahab Christian, Christian Melville, Reference Ahab's, Samaritan Luke, white whale, king ahab, sailor elijah, 1 kings, captain ahab, ishmael queequeg, ahab perishes, horrific images, biblical allusion, prophet elijah,
Approximate Word count = 1484
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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