A Comparison Of The Allegorical Themes In Moby Dick

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At the conclusion of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and after three days of chasing the whale, the flag atop the Pequod’s main mast had become weathered and torn. Ahab instructs Tashtego to mount a new flag on the main mast and the Indian from Gay Head Massachusetts promptly complies. Tashtego’s compliance to his captain’s order is so diligent that even after the whale has struck the mortal blow against the ship, Tashetego continues to hammer in the flag as he and the mast sink into the sea (Melville 531, 535). The compliance to his captain and willingness to do what Ahab has instructed, instead of trying to scamper for his life, is testament to the Gay Header’s obedience. However, his obedience says as much about the control of the captain over …show more content…

S. Elliot’s “The Wasteland.” A combination of this cataclysmic ending and biblical references has led most research on the novel to be focused the allegorical themes in the novel. This would lead the reader to believe that the destruction of the Pequod is a reference to—and consequence of—Ahab’s relationship with God. However, a close examination of Moby Dick under a new historicism approach exposes Melville’s recalcitrant nature and disdain for civil control, and reveals that the Pequod is destroyed because of man’s wrath against the mechanisms that control …show more content…

Examples of self-control, or lack thereof, are displayed in the life of the carpenter and Ahab and Pip’s slide from sanity. The blacksmith, as told through his back-story, has become a blacksmith on whale boat after losing everything he owned, including a wife and three children, due to alcoholism. Alcohol, in the most cunning disguise, came in like a “desperate burglar” (Melville 458) and took everything from him. Ahab and Pip succumb to insanity after near death experiences that leave them bewildered at the unknown world. In each of these cases, they have the ability to control themselves to a certain point. After which, after they have “pushed off from that insular Tahiti” (Melville 271), then they are no longer able to control their own

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  • Going Insane in Moby Dick

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