Subject: English - Melville: Moby Dick
 Good and Evil in a Morally Indifferent Universe in Moby Dick
 
         The moral ambiguity of the universe is prevalent throughout Melville’s Moby
 Dick.  None of the characters represent pure evil or pure goodness.  Even
 Melville’s description of Ahab, whom he repeatedly refers to "monomaniacal,"
 suggesting an amorality or psychosis, is given a chance to be seen as a
 frail, sympathetic character.  When Ahab’s "monomaniac" fate is juxtaposed
 with that of Ishmael, that moral ambiguity deepens, leaving the reader with
 an ultimate unclarity of principle.
         The final moments of Moby Dick bring the novel to a terse, abrupt climax.
 The mutual destruction of the Pequod and the White Whale, followed by
 Ishmael’s epilogue occupies approximately half a dozen pages.  Despite
 Melville’s previous tendency to methodically detail every aspect of whaling
 life, he assumes a concise, almost journalistic approach in the climax.
 Note that in these few pages, he makes little attempt to assign value
 judgements to the events taking place.  Stylistically, his narration is
 reduced to brusque, factual phrases using a greater number of semicolons.
 By ending the book so curtly, Melville makes a virtually negligible attempt
 at denouement, leaving what value judgements exist to the reader.
         Ultimately, it is the dichotomy between the respective fortunes of Ishmael
 and Ahab that the reader is left with.  Herein lies a greater moral
 ambiguity than is previously suggested.  Although Ishmael is the sole
 survivor of the Pequod, it is notable that in his own way, Ahab fulfills his
 desire for revenge by ensuring the destruction of the White Whale alongside
 his own end.  Despite the seeming superiority of Ishmael’s destiny, Melville
 does not explicitly indicate so.  On the contrary, he subtly suggests that
 Ishmael’s survival is lonely and empty upon being rescued: "It was the
 devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing
 children, only found another orphan." (724)  That single instance of the
 appellation "orphan" as applied to Ishmael speaks volumes when taken in
 light of the destruction of the Pequod and her crew.  Melville’s inclusion
 of Ishmael’s survival as an epilogue, a suffix attached to the dramatic
 destruction of the Pequod, suggests that Ishmael’s survival is an
 afterthought to the fate of Ahab and the rest of his crew.  Ishmael’s quiet
 words at the beginning of the chapter, "Why then here does any one step
 forth?  —Because one did survive the wreck," (723) indicate a deep humility
 on Ishmael’s part.
         The question is then raised of why Ishmael is the sole survivor.  It is
 clear that Ishmael significantly differs with Ahab concerning their
 respective perspectives of the White Whale.  Ishmael clearly indicates in
 the chapter "The Try Works" how disagreeable he finds the mission and
 mentality of those around him: "…the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages,
 and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness
 of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander’s
 soul." (540)  Here, Ishmael breaks his usual detached observancy and boldly
 divorces himself from Ahab’s mission and those whom Ahab has recruited to
 aid him.
         Ishmael further distinguishes himself from the rest of the crew by being
 the sole non-exploiter of whales in general.  Melville makes it clear early
 on that Ishmael initially chooses to ship on the Pequod for the experiential
 value of whaling.  It has been indicated that his outlook on the whale is
 the only significantly benign one.  Whereas Ishmael is terrified by the
 "whiteness of the whale," Stubb sees economic gain in the valuable whale
 oil, subtly hinted at by his overbearing gloating upon his first kill.  In
 the harpooneers, we see a violent savageness, even in Queequeg’s otherwise
 loving nature.  To Ahab, the whale is a emblem of pure evil.  Even prudent,
 rational Starbuck looks on the whale as a dumb animal, which it is his duty
 to exploit.
 The terror that Ishmael perceives is a consequence of his own vague fear of
 the whale’s "nothingness."  What Ishmael fears is the mystical, terrifying
 manifestation of white in the natural world, coupled with its subversion of
 the sense of purity attached to whiteness in the human world.  Ishmael is
 distinguished from the rest of the crew in his ability to consider the
 perspectives of the others.  In his role as narrator, Ishmael’s ability to
 detachedly analyze the viewpoints of those around him may be what saves him.
 Note also, that in his narration, Ishmael is the one character to cast any
 reverence upon the grand scale of the whale.  Unlike the values the others
 place on the whale, Ishmael is capable of viewing the whale solely for its
 being, as one of the many viewpoints that he considers through the course of
 the novel.
 In contrast, Ahab’s views of the whale are singular and focused.  Melville
 describes it as a "monomaniacal" obsession, but it is clear in Ahab’s
 complexity that there are other factors at work.  Ahab remains virtually
 unidimensional until the chapter "The Symphony," where he freely shares his
 feelings with Starbuck.  In allowing us to see the subtle complexities of
 Ahab’s obsession, Melville makes it clear that Ahab is not an inhuman
 machine of revenge.  Ahab’s questioning of "what nameless, inscrutable,
 unearthly thing is it; what cozzening, hidden lord and master, and cruel,
 remorseless emperor commands me?" (685)  replaces his previous portrait as
 the depraved lunatic.  The reader is now left to question whether Ahab is
 indeed maddened by his obsessive hatred, or simply overwhelmingly
 determined, but blinded by his anger.
 Note though, that despite whatever end comes of him, Ahab succeeds in
 avenging himself upon the whale.  Although he is swallowed up by the sea
 before he can be fully aware of his success, he does expend his last moments
 fulfilling his mission.  At the last, he proclaims, "from hell’s heart I
 stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee."  Whatever
 Ahab’s motivations, it cannot be discounted that this objective of is his
 being realized even with his dying breath.
 With the characters of Ishmael and Ahab structured into their respective
 places, the stage is set for the novel’s finale.  The ambiguous
 circumstances of the last chapter "The Chase —Third Day," are further
 complicated by the portrait of the whale that Melville himself composes.
 Melville portrays whales methodically throughout the novel, approaching them
 from a scientific, sociologic, philosophic and even poetic points of view.
 Despite the relative benignness of the novel’s previous leviathans, Melville
 makes the White Whale markedly different: "Moby Dick seemed combinedly
 possessed by all the angels that fell from heaven." (715) Despite the
 seemingly lunacy implied by Ahab’s insistence that the White Whale is an
 evil force, the ruthless efficacy with which Moby Dick defends himself seems
 to vindicate Ahab in the end.  It is this mutual malevolency that is the
 impetus for the downward spiral of violence begetting violence that
 culminates in the mutual destruction of Ahab and Moby Dick.
 In being left to valuate the respective fates of Ishmael and Ahab, the
 reader is forced to examine what each character has accomplished or lost in
 his choice of actions.  Ishmael is fortunate enough to be the sole survivor
 of the Pequod, but it is left unclear to what traumas he faces.  Ahab
 ultimately succeeds in his goal, but does so at the expense of his life, his
 ship and his crew.  Melville makes no attempt to delineate for the reader a
 moral hierarchy, and in doing so, completes the ambiguity.
 The reader is then left with the possibility of assigning symbolic relations
 between the characters.  If looked at from the grandest scale, it is
 possible to see the whale and the sea as a morally ambivalent cosmos.  If
 so, then the fault of Ahab and the crew of the Pequod is their futile
 attempt to master a force of nature far beyond their comprehension, and are
 destroyed for it.  The image of Ishmael floating helplessly upon the ocean,
 without even the wreckage of the Pequod then becomes a strikingly lonely
 image of humanity adrift in a universe neither good nor evil.
 
 -another imperative from your friendly local interplanetary Imperial regime
                                                        -sulik