An Analysis of the Heroism of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick
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摘要:美国小说家、散文家和诗人赫尔曼•梅尔维尔的名作《白鲸记》中几近癫狂的亚哈船长一直以来就是一个备受争议的人物。本论文试图从亚哈船长与自然界邪恶力量的较量以及与基督教上帝绝对权威的较量两个方面深入分析亚哈船长性格中的的英雄主义色彩。
关键字:《白鲸记》;亚哈船长;英雄主义
Abstract:Moby Dick, pulished in 1851, is the greatest novel by American novelist,essayist tand poet, Herman Melville, people can easily notice the leading character Melville depicted, the Captain Ahab of the ship who is often viewed paranoia and insane.This thesis tries to analyze Ahab’s heroism with an analysis of: his fight against the evil power in nature and the absolute authority of Christian God.
Key Words: Moby Dick, Captain Ahab, heroism
I. Introduction
Moby Dick, is Herman Melville’s best known book, which accounts a whaling journey on which captain ahab chases moby dick, the gigantic white whale who once tore off his right leg. Ahab brings along 30 sailors of many different origins. The ship, Pequod makes a good catch of whales in the beginning, but Ahab refuses to return before killing the white whale. Eventually the white whale appears and begins its doomed fight. At last, all on board the whaler get drowned except Ishmael who survives to tell the tale.
II. Captain Ahab’s Heroism
1.1. Fighting against evil powers in nature.
From Ishmael’s introduction, Moby-Dick has always been like a killing overlord throughout oceans. With regard to that specific whaling day, the whale obviously represents the personification of anything that has, is or will be evil in the world. Not only Captain Ahab but almost all people including those who have never been at sea hate it and want to kill it, but they finally choose to be resigned to its hegemony. None of them is courageous enough to fight with it for fearing the uncertainty of future in battle and the mysterious natural power beyond human knowledge. They find excuse for their own coward-ness by saying Moby Dick is mere a dumb uncivilized sea creature and it is not worthwhile at all to fight. However, Ahab is an exception as the actual doer, which we can see in many pages(Arvin 1950). Ahab wages war heroically against the evil in nature, never bending his soul. Therefore, it is undoubtedly that “the madness of Captain Ahab is an intrepid act of human beings fighting against nature and the unknowing, hued with a manifest heroism color.”[1]
Among all writings about the fight between man and nature,Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is certainly a classic one displaying a battle between the old man and sharks. In Moby Dick, we also find depictions on fight. In these two works, both the leading characters are physically weak but both have strong determination and unconquerable mind, although they end up differently. While the old man in Old Man and the Sea is viewed as a hero saying: “A man can be destroyed but not defeated”, we may say that Captain Ahab is same endowed with heroic qualities even if he appears with a biblically evil name, a furious temper and an ungentle manner.
1.2. Challenging Christian God’s absolute authority
In the work, there is a scene specially set before Ishmael finds a job on Pequod: he goes to a Christian church. The passage goes like“On Sunday Ishmael sees many other whalers from around the world on the streets of New Bedford and attends a service at a chapel in which the clergyman, Father Mapple, preaches a sermon on Jonah and the whale and exhorts his listeners to obey the will of God...”[2]
What Father Mapple says must be set here purposely by the author,Jonah might be a person who does not exist in reality at all, but the author uses Jonah’s experience described by a Father in order to foreshadow intentionally the fate of Ahab that he would ultimately fail his fight, since he is much like another “wayward” Jonah. However, Captain Ahab is a person who does care the least about the will or punishment of God. He does not believe that God would wish man to be weak and coward when suffering from nature, nor does he believe in the invisible almighty power which he thinks is helpless to human struggle for victory in life. Instead, what he cares and believes in is only the will and knowledge of human beings.Some critics think that “Captain Ahab in Herman Melville's Moby Dick compares too with the archetype of Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost”.[3] This is probably because Ahab and Satan are both fighting outstandingly against the dictatorship of God.
The rebellious quality of Ahab can also be seen in many other pages, like after the Pequod enters the Pacific Ahab asks the ship's blacksmith to forge a special harpoon for killing the whale, " something that will stick in a whale like his own fin-bone." By baptizing the harpoon with the blood of non-Christians and provoking devil,Ahab is indeed doing something that is regarded strongly offensive to the authority of Christian God in his age.
III.Conclusion
Captain Ahab is not mad and extremely evil at all,instead, he is quite clear what he is going to fight against and how man’s power and knowledge could be sought through fearless struggles. From Melville’s writing career, people can easily draw that he was a dedicated literary artist. Even though he knew that he was doomed to write a book like Moby Dick in his time, he was still strongly determined to go ahead. His creative spirit has deeply moved a lot of followers. In some way, he resembles Captain Ahab very much: like a hero determined and courageous to face difficulties and fight against the gloomy destiny and never draw back, just as Melville wrote himsel, “To scale great heights, we must come out of the lowest depths. The way to heaven is through hell. We need fiery baptism in the fierce flames of our bosoms.”
Bibliography:
[1] Arvin, Newton(1950). Herman Melville[M]. New York:G.P.Putnam’s Sons.
[2] 戴雪芳(2008) , 论亚哈船长的疯狂,重庆工学院学报,第2期
[3] 麦尔维尔. 白鲸[M].罗由川,译.长沙:湖南文艺出版社,1996:392.
[4][美]赫曼.麦尔维尔(1982). 白鲸:莫比-迪克[M].曹庸,译.上海:上海文艺出版社.