Ahab Archetype Essay

Ahab the Archetype
Ahab’s character is unpredictable; at one moment he is a raging and insane captain while at another, introspective and sensible. He is monomaniacal; he only focuses on finding and killing Moby Dick. When describing how Ahab lost his leg and how his obsession came about, Ishmael compares Ahab to the Hudson river (196). Similarly to how the river flows narrowly and leaves nothing behind, Ishmael writes, “in his narrow-flowing monomania, not one jot of Ahab’s broad madness had been left behind; so in that broad madness, not one jot of his great natural intellect had perished” (196). While Ahab may be obsessive and goal-orientated, or a monomaniac, he still maintains his intellect. His decisions leading up to the end of his

quest are calculated and planned; he does not allow his obsession to completely control him. Ahab’s obsession only manifested after he lost his leg and this obsession is the prime contributor to his monomaniacal ways. Ishmael writes, when recounting how this came about, “Moby Dick had reaped away Ahab’s leg... ever since that almost fatal encounter, Ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale” (194-195). This wild vindictiveness becomes his driving force and propels him to seek out Moby Dick. It also drives his monomania. Ahab’s characteristics are based upon his circumstance and the events which shaped him. There are two other characters which embody aspects of Ahab’s character: Lord Voldemort and Captain Hook.
Lord Voldemort, also known as Tom Riddle, is the dark lord and villain in the Harry Potter universe. Similarly to Ahab, Voldemort loses a part of himself to his obsession. During the height of his reign, Voldemort killed Lily and James Potter and attempted to kill their son, Harry Potter. But Lily Potter, with her last breath, stood between Voldemort and her infant son. Because of her act of love, Harry lived, but Voldemort accidentally left a part of his soul inside Harry’s scar. Like Ahab, Voldemort involuntarily lost a part of himself—his soul. This loss forever connects Voldemort and Harry, in the same way Ahab’s lost leg forever connects him to Moby Dick. This loss also fuels an obsession and displaced anger. When Voldemort makes his return, his one goal is to kill the boy who lived. Voldemort feels he must kill Harry because he believes it will display his renewed power and control. Sybill Trelawney, a professor at Hogwarts, also foretold the prophecy that either Voldemort or Harry must die, and neither could live while the other survives. Voldemort places all of his anger regarding his downfall on Harry even though he could not stop the events of the night of his parents’ murder. In the end, however, Voldemort dies at the hands of Harry Potter, just as Ahab dies at the hands of Moby Dick.
Captain Hook, from Peter Pan, also shares many qualities as Ahab, and conforms to the Ahab archetype.

Hook loses his hand to a crocodile, has an obsession with Peter Pan, and ultimately dies at the hands of his obsession. Peter Pan plays a hand in Hooks unhanding, and throws Hook’s severed hand to the crocodile. Like Ahab’s peg leg, Hook replaces the lost lumb with a prosthetic, a hook. Because Peter Pan cut his hand off, Captain Hook obsesses over getting revenge. Everything he does relates to his master plan to kill Peter Pan. He captures Princess Tiger Lily in order to learn of Peter’s secret hideout; he fires cannonballs at Peter, Wendy, Michael, and John in an attempt to kill Peter; he even goes as far as kidnapping and imprisoning Tinkerbell and emotionally manipulating her into showing him where Peter lives. His one goal is to kill Peter Pan. Captain Hook uses this information to track down Peter Pan; Ahab tracks down Moby Dick. Hook tries to kill Peter Pan with a bomb disguised as a package, but Peter narrowly escapes death; it takes three days for Ahab to finally come close to killing Moby Dick. Both Hook and Ahab attack their respective obsessions multiple times, but ultimately fail in killing them. In the end, Peter and Hook engage in a battle to the death, which Peter

wins.
The story of the Pequod, written in 1851 about a whaling voyage, the story of Peter Pan, written in 1904 about the boy who never grew up, and the story of Harry Potter, written in the 1990s all have at least one thing in common; they all contain a crazy captain. Ahab captains the Pequod, Hook captains a pirate ship, and Voldemort captains the Death Eaters. This archetype ties together three characters across three stories across three time periods. People can recognize and connect these similarities; the archetypes allow them to enjoy an older book, which may not always make sense, because they can make modern day connections. Readers can use these connections to clarify books in the future, understand books in the present, or simplify books from the past.