Реферат: Moby Dick Essay Research Paper English 12

Ahab to the bottom of the sea.

Despite Ahab?s apparent madness, he still seemed able to reason

clearly. He carefully and methodically located the region of the sea

that Moby Dick is most likely to be in (an almost impossible task,

considering the size of the Earth?s Oceans). When he first set sail,

Ahab?s original plan was to hunt only Moby Dick and ignore other

whales. Once he realizes that his men will abandon him if they do

not make some sort of a profit while at sea, he encourages them to

hunt other whales and boosts the morale of the crew.

Ahab is definitely the hero of Moby Dick, but he is a tragic hero.

Everyone in the novel who knew Ahab prior to losing his leg

considered him to be a great man, and one of the finest captains

ever. After the loss of his leg during the first battle with Moby

Dick, Ahab?s tragic flaw appeared. He was obsessed. He wanted

revenge, and nothing else. Ahab considered Moby Dick to be the

embodiment of all that is evil. This monomania is what sent the

Pequod halfway around the world to the Pacific Ocean, where Ahab (and

almost everyone else on the Pequod) died.

Ahab becomes focused on his one view of the whale. Ahab?s preceives

the whale as the embodiment of evil. The whale?s white color lends

an ambiguity to the image of the whale as evil.

The great White Whale, Moby Dick, symbolizes many different things.

The first thing it represents is Ahab?s anger. The whale?s body is

deformed, as is Ahab?s. The whale is driven by animalistic rage,

mirroring the anger in Ahab. Ahab thinks Moby Dick is a monster, but

it is really Ahab who has become the monster. The whale serves as a

scapegoat for Ahab?s miserable existence.

Another thing Moby Dick can represent an unreachable goal. He is a

legendary whale, and the object of a wild and exciting chase through