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Similes
Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—Ishmael as Narrator :
Ishmael, a storyteller who constantly emphasizes the limits of his own knowledge and that of writing, proves himself to be an unreliable narrator, and one who doesn’t hide it. Indeed, Ishmael repeatedly hints that he cannot give a full and complete picture of the tales he is narrating. His discussion of the impossibility of representing the whale in art—a discussion that highlights the imperfections of his own attempt to do so through writing—is one example that emphasizes this self-awareness. When he attempts his classification of the whales, he is quick to acknowledge that he can “promise nothing complete” because “any human thing supposed to be complete, must for that very reason infallibly be faulty.” In other words, a full and faithful tale would be an impossible feat.
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Chapter 65: The Whale as a Dish
Explanation and Analysis—Hypocrisy of Reader :
When describing how Stubb eats a whale steak, Melville uses logos to highlight the hypocrisy of the anticipated outrage of the reader. In a direct address to the reader, Melville uses reason to demonstrate how even the readers probably engage in similar acts without scrutiny. He writes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+But Stubb, he eats the whale by its own light, does he? and that is adding insult to injury, is it? Look at your knife-handle, there, my civilized and enlightened gourmand dining off that roast beef, what is that handle made of?—what but the bones of the brother of the very ox you are eating? [...] And with what quill did the Secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Cruelty to Ganders formally indite his circulars? It is only within the last month or two that that society passed a resolution to patronize nothing but steel pens.
Chapter 98: Stowing Down and Clearing Up
Explanation and Analysis—Cleaning the Ship:
That the ship is described as at its cleanest after having undergone the gruesome and bloody processes behind distilling the sperm oil from the body of the dead whale is an example of situational irony. Ishmael highlights the irony himself, commenting on its “remarkable” nature:
Unlock with LitCharts A+In the sperm fishery, this is perhaps one of the most remarkable incidents in all the business of whaling. One day the planks stream with freshets of blood and oil... But a day or two after, you look about you, and prick your ears in this self-same ship; and were it not for the tell-tale boats and try-works, you would all but swear you trod some silent merchant vessel, with a most scrupulously neat commander. The unmanufactured sperm oil possesses a singularly cleansing virtue. This is the reason why the decks never look so white as just after what they call an affair of oil.
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Chapter 113: The Forge
Explanation and Analysis—Inverted baptism :
When forging the harpoon with which he intends to kill Moby Dick, Ahab parodies the Christian ritual of baptism but in a way that inverts it to represent his defiance of the gods. When forged, Ahab rejects the water for the harpoon and instead asks the three “heathen” harpooners if they will be pricked by the barbs to “baptize” it in blood.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Three punctures were made in the heathen flesh, and the White Whale’s barbs were then tempered.
“Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!” deliriously howled Ahab, as the malignant iron scorchingly devoured the baptismal blood.
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Chapter 127: The Deck
Explanation and Analysis—Coffin as Life-Buoy:
Queequeg’s coffin becoming Ishmael’s life-buoy is an example of situational irony that highlights the novel’s exploration of immortality and fate. Ahab curses the carpenter as a “heathenish old scamp” for undertaking the task of transforming the coffin. However, though initially abhorred, the philosophical pondering that the coffin-lifebuoy goes on to evoke in Ahab highlights the novel’s deeper and metatextual reflections on the idea of immortality. Ahab reflects:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Here now’s the very dreaded symbol of grim death, by a mere hap, made the expressive sign of the help and hope of most endangered life. A life-buoy of a coffin! Does it go further? Can it be that in some spiritual sense the coffin is, after all, but an immortality-preserver! I’ll think of that.
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Chapter 135: The Chase. – Third Day
Explanation and Analysis—Ahab's Death :
That Ahab is killed not by Moby Dick but by the throwing of his own harpoon is an example of irony that highlights Ahab’s role in bringing upon his own downfall. In the final reckoning with the whale, Ahab, knowing all is lost, launches his harpoon in a final act of desperation but gets entangled in his own line and drowns. Before launching the harpoon, Ahab says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!”
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