How Does Moby Dick Represent The Physical Aspects Of The Pequod?

Within Chapter 96, Tryworks, of Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick, Melville describes the strenuous labor involved in maintaining the try-works, an area on the ship that converts whale blubber into oil. On this whaling ship, the Pequod, all crew is under the vengeful and obsessive rulings of Captain Ahab, who is in pursuit of revenge on the whale who took his leg. The try-work, narrated by Ishmael, appears to be a regular area that performs mundane tasks. Upon further detail, Ishmael switches from describing the physical aspects of the Pequod and shifts to the metaphorical lens, in which the try-works represent a more sinister atmosphere and connects to Ahab’s obsessive pursuits of Moby Dick, the white whale. Melville establishes a menacing atmosphere by rendering the Pequod and its crew into a demonic hell through the portrayal of the harpooners as demons, the personification of fire, and turning the Pequod into a vessel from hell, all

While portraying the harpooners in the hatch, Melville described their shapes as, “Tartarean”, which alludes to the hellish underworld of Greek mythology. Associated with this Tartarean hell is fear and punishment, suggesting that whaling is a vicious task that transforms these harpooneers into demonic beings of hell whose labor induces suffering. By transforming these human beings into demons that walk the earth, Melville begins to install a sense of fear into his readers. Furthermore, while they melt down blubber, Melville vividly depicts the harpooners having, “tawny features, now all begrimed with smoke and sweat.matted beards, and.contrasting barbaric brilliancy of their teeth,” which chillingly illustrates how the harpooners physically embody hell on earth due to the grueling nature of their