Reading Guide for Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

This reading guide, inspired by and some of it borrowed

from the former Harvard scholar Bob Lamb, is designed to
help you focus on various themes and passages as you read
Moby-Dick. The page numbers refer to the Penguin edition
and the Norton Critical Edition [the latter in brackets].
The reading guide should help you with close reading,
which is the foundation of all serious reading: this is
where literary studies lives and what makes it exciting and
illuminating---the actual words (or images) on the page, as
opposed to our generalities and the conversations inspired
by our reading (though this has value too).
Refer to this guide after youve read the assigned
pages; you can then go back to the text to examine the
questions that particularly interest you. The questions
will hopefully help you think about the reading youve done
and help you formulate your own questions.

Etymology and Extracts: Why does Melville begin his novel

with Etymology. How do you interpret the source of this
opening: Supplied by a Late Consumptive Usher to a Grammar
School [7]? What is the function of Extracts? How do
you interpret the source of Extracts: Supplied by a SubSub-Librarian [8]? Is there an overall pattern to the
extracts? Where does Melville take these extracts from
(what categories of sources)? Is he fabricating or
fictionalizing them, or is he being accurate? What
assumptions does Melville make about his readers? Would you
understand the novel differently if one or both of these
chapters had been omitted?
Chs. 1-3: Who is the biblical Ishmael? How would you
characterize Ishmael? How would you define his religious
and material worldviews? Why does he go to sea? What kind
of narrator is he? (Etymology and Extracts should help
answer this question.) What is the symbolic relevance of
the story of Narcissus on p. 20 [5]? Why does he say, Who
aint a slave? 6 [21]. Who or what are those stage
managers, the Fates? 7 [22]. How do you interpret the
headlines of the grand programme of Providence on p. 7
[22]? How does Ishmael characterize New Bedford? What

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color symbolism does he use in his descriptions of the
whaling port? How does Ishmael characterize the black
church that he enters? What biblical text is the black
preacher preaching from? What is your impression of the
Spouter Inn from Ishmaels descriptions? Take careful note
of the oil painting on pp. 13-14 [26]. Note the sailor
Bulkington who makes a brief appearance on p. 17 [29]. What
is your first impression of Queequeg and what causes you to
have this impression? What philosophical principles enable
Ishmael to quell his fears before they go to sleep?
Chs. 4-6: What is the symbolic significance of the
Counterpane? How do you interpret Ishmaels dream and the
supernatural hand? Does Ishmaels view of Queequeg change?
If so, how and why? How would you characterize the whaling
industry? How does it affect the representation of New
Bedford?
Chs. 7-9: What is Ishmaels attitude toward religion and
the afterlife? (p. 42 [45]) How does it contrast with the
religion of other characters, such as Uncle Tom, St. Clare,
Eva, Madison Washington, Eliza Wharton, etc? For all his
doubts, does Ishmael want to believe in something divine?
Compare the painting in Father Mapples church (pp. 44-45
[47]) with the one at the Spouter Inn. In what ways does
whaling pervade the discourse and religion in Mapples
church? What does Ishmael mean when he says that Faith,
like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these
dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope. (p. 42 [45]).
What are the two strands of Mapples sermon? In the first
strand or lesson, which does he focus on, Jonahs sin or his
repentance? Which of the two strands does Mapple emphasize,
submission to authority or preaching truth to falsehood?
How would you characterize Mapples faith? Does it resemble
that of other characters in the novel? How does the text in
the black church comment upon Mapples sermon (ch. 1)? What
part of the story of Jonah does Mapple leave out, and why do
you suppose he omits it? Would you characterize Mapples
sermon as dangerous, revolutionary, or conventional? Why?
Chs. 10-15: What effect does Queequeg have on Ishmael after
the sermon? How does Ishmael respond to or interpret
Mapples sermon? How would you characterize Ishmaels and
Queequegs relationship? Where is Kokovoko? What does
Ishmael mean when he says that Its a joint-stock world?
(p. 68 [64])

3
Chs. 16-18: Why doesnt Ishmael heed the bad omens he sees?
Why is Ishmael in charge of selecting the ship? What is the
symbolic significance of the ship, Pequod? What is
distinctive about it? How would you characterize the Quaker
captains Peleg and Bildad and how do they use religion to
determine Ishmaels wages? (pp. 84-86 [73-75]) Who was the
biblical Ahab? (see 1 Kings 16:19-30) How do you interpret
Pelegs characterization of Ahab as a grand, ungodly, godlike man? (p. 88 [78]) What is a Ramadan? What kind of
woman is Mrs. Hussey in ch. 17? What is the purpose of
Queequegs fasting, and how is it interpreted by Ishmael and
Mrs. Hussey? Why does Queequeg receive so high a lay? What
is a Quohog?
Chs. 19-22: If you have read Coleridges The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner, speculate on how the meeting with Elijah
relates to Coleridges poem. What is the relationship
between Elijah and Ahab in the Bible (see 1 Kings 16-22).
How do you interpret Elijahs industrial metaphor of the
soul? What is the place of the soul in an industrial
economy? According to Elijah, does Ahab have a soul? Why
does Ishmael pronounce Elijah crazy and then in my heart,
a humbug? (102, 103 [88]) Why doesnt Ishmael treat the
forebodings about Ahab seriously? (106 [90]) How do you
compare Aunt Charity with Mrs. Hussey? How do you interpret
Ishmaels second meeting with Elijah? How is it different
from the first meeting?
Ch. 23: Why is ch. 23 devoted to Bulkington (this six-inch
chapter is the stoneless grave of Bulkington (116 [96])
What is his role in the novel? Why does Ishmael call him a
demigod? (117 [97]) How do you interpret Ishmaels line:
But as in landlessness alone resides the highest truth,
shoreless, indefinite as God---so, better is it to perish in
that howling infinite, than be ingloriously dashed upon the
lee, even if that were safety! (117 [97]). How do you
interpret the last line of the chapter? Read this six-inch
chapter carefully. What happens to Bulkington in the
novel?
Chs. 24-31: What brief does Ishmael make for the profession
of whaling? How does he characterize the profession? How
do you interpret Ishmaels statement: For what are the
comprehensible terrors of man compared with the interlinked
terrors and wonders of God! (119 [98]) Why is the whaleship Ishmaels Yale College and my Harvard. (122 [101])
How are Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, Tashtego, and Daggoo

4
described and characterized (age, personal qualities,
religion, place of origin)? What is Starbucks flaw? (125126 [102-103]) What does Ishmael mean by democratic
dignity and what is its source? (126 [103]) How does
Ishmaels reference to Andrew Jackson relate to democratic
dignity? How do you interpret Stubbs pipe and why is it
a sort of disinfecting agent? (129 [105]) Where are the
owners, leaders, and the crew of the Pequod from and what
kind of society is it? (pp. 131-132 [106-107]) What is an
Isolato? (131 [107]) Where do the people with the greatest
killing skills come from? What is your response to the
first appearance of Ahab? Exactly how is he described?
What does Ishmael think of him? How does Ishmaels
description of Ahab relate to Elijahs? How do you compare
Stubbs pipe with Ahabs pipe; and given what Ishmael says
about Stubbs pipe, how do you interpret Ahabs tossing his
own pipe into the ocean? How do you interpret Stubbs dream
in ch. 31?
Ch. 32: What is the purpose of the cetology chapter? Why
does Melville say it is so difficult to classify whales? By
what criteria does Ishmael classify different whales? What
qualities does he ascribe to the sperm whale? What color
are almost all whales? (153 [121]) The final sentence of
the next-to-last paragraph (but signifying nothing) is an
allusion to Macbeths speech after he discovers that Lady
Macbeth has killed herself; Shakespeare lovers, speculate on
what meaning is implied here. Why does Ishmael organize the
chapter in the manner he does, and why does he leave his
cetological System standing thus unfinished? (157 [125])
In what ways does this last paragraph relate to the spirit
of the broader narrative?
Chs. 33-34: Why do chapters 33 and 34 follow immediately
after the cetology chapter? What is Ishmael classifying?
How do the mates proceed to supper and how do they
disengage? Why is Flask a butterless man (p. 163 [129])
and why does he always go hungry? Compare the meal of the
mates with the almost frantic democracy of the harpooners.
Ch. 35: What three things do masthead standers look for?
What happens to you while standing on the masthead? Why is
Ishmael a lousy masthead stander? Why doesnt the Platonist
spot any whales? What do Descartian vortices and
pantheistic ashes have to do with looking for whales?
(173 [136])

5
Ch. 36: Read this chapter closely. What happens to the
narrator? Why does the structure of the novel suddenly
become like a stage play? How does Ahab attempt to win over
Starbuck? What is Starbucks first objection, and Ahabs
response? What is Starbucks second objection, and why does
he use the word blasphemy? When Ahab responds, what does
he mean by paste board masks, agent and principal, and
inscrutable world? How does Ahab win the men over? Why
does Starbuck back down?
Chs. 37-40: What has happened to the novels narrator and
point-of-view? Why is Ahab damned in the midst of
Paradise? (p. 183 [143]) Can Ahab help himself, or is
something controlling him as much as he controls his crew?
How does Stubb see his predicament in Ch. 39, and what, if
anything, does he have in common here with Starbuck? In
Dusk, what is Starbucks predicament and how does he see
it? How do you interpret the crew members interacting in
ch. 40, and Pips prayer to God?
Ch. 41: Is the whale agent of some larger force or
principal (the force itself)? Is it consciously malign or a
dumb brute? Based on what youve read so far, does Ahab
have a chance of finding it, and then of killing it? Why
does Ishmael go along with Ahab? Is he sympathetic to Ahab,
and does he like or admire him? How would you characterize
their relationship? How would you define Ahabs monomania?
What are its characteristics?
Ch. 42: What is Moby Dick to Ishmael? Why does the
whiteness of the whale so appall him, and why does he need
to explain his views of the whale, else all these chapters
be naught? (205 [159])
What exactly does Moby Dick look
like? What color is it? Read the last paragraph carefully.
What reasons does Ishmael give for why the color white is
the intensifying agent in things most appalling to
mankind? How is the method of this chapter exemplary of
the method of the novel, in terms of rhetoric and
epistemology?
Chs. 43-46: How does ch. 43 move the narrative forward?
What does it add to the novel? In ch. 44, where is Ahab
taking the ship, and why? How is the end of ch. 44 deepened
by Ishmaels analysis of whiteness at the end of ch. 42?
What is Ahab without Moby Dick? Why does Melville title ch.
45 The Affidavit? What is the purpose of Ishmael making
the special point on the bottom of page 224 [173] about

6
the ship Essex. Note that the story of the Essex in 1820 is
a true story. Why does Ishmael include a footnote about
Owen Chase; what is the purpose of this footnote? What does
Ishmael surmise about Ahab in ch. 46? What is meant by the
charge of usurpation?
Chs. 47-51: How do you interpret the comparative
disappearance of Queequeg in Ishmaels narrative, given
their intimacy at the beginning of the book? How does
Ishmael and Queequegs relationship relate to the mat? Does
Ishmael believe in necessity, free will, or chance? What
happens to his ball of free will? If necessity means
what is unchangeable, free will what we can choose, and
chance what is unexpected, then how do these three things
relate to Ahab, the crew, and Moby Dick? Who are the five
dusky phantoms? (p. 235 [180]) What do they look like and
how do you interpret their relationship with Ahab? Does ch.
48 affect your understanding of the crew? What do you make
of Ishmaels description of Flask atop Daggoo? (p. 240
[184]) In the Hyena, how does Ishmael respond to his
encounter with death? How would you compare Ishmaels
musings on fate and free will with those of Ahab at the end
of ch. 37? Whats your response to Fedallah? Why was he a
stowaway?
Ch. 52-53: These are the first two of nine meetings with
other ships. What is their function? Do they help
structure the narrative? Look at these meetings carefully;
among common themes are: documentary on whale hunting;
meditations on the nature of the whale; Ishmaels continuing
to explore the meaning of things; Starbucks relationship to
Ahab (sometimes rendered indirectly); whether Moby Dick is
evil or a dumb brute, agent or principal.
What is the significance of the name, Albatross? For
those who have read Coleridges Rime of the Ancient
Mariner, how might it serve as an intertext? Where is this
ship from and what condition is it in? What omens occur?
What are the two ways in which Ishmael says a voyage can end
at the end of ch. 52? What are the purposes of a gam and
what function does it serve? What sort of tone has come
over the book?
Ch. 54: This is the longest chapter in the book and the
only one Melville published separately, before Moby-Dick.
How does the story come to Ishmael? What information
regarding Ishmaels fate do you discover here? Where did
the incident aboard the Town-Ho take place and when? What

7
other major event in the novel took place at the same time
and in the same location? How would you compare the captain
of the Town-Ho with the characters aboard the Pequod? Who
is he most like? How does the Town-Ho story relate to the
crew and events on the Pequod? Recall Bulkington from page
17 and chs. 3 and 23; who on the Town-Ho is he most like?
Chs. 55-60: Why is the great Leviathan the one creature
in the world which must remain unpainted to the last? (p.
289 [218]) And what exactly does Ishmael mean by this
statement? Who comes closest to understanding a whale, and
why? Closely read the third paragraph of ch. 57 and the
final paragraph of ch. 58. Who is the King of the
Cannibals? Read closely the last two paragraphs of ch. 58;
how do you interpret them? Ishmael says on two occasions,
Who aint a cannibal? How does this statement compare
with his statement in ch. 1, Who aint a slave? What are
the dangers of the line?
Chs. 61-63: What color is the sperm whale that Stubb kills
(p. 308 [230]). How do you interpret the pipe-smoking
images in ch. 61, and what do they suggest about the
relationship between Stubb and the whale? How does the
language of destructiveness and violence in this chapter
compare with the language of productivity? Why does Ishmael
describe the killing of the whale in such detail, and how
does he defend the cruelty and gore of whaling?
Chs. 64-70: What is Ahabs attitude toward the successful
whale kill in ch. 64? We have already seen how Ishmael
breaks down such binary oppositions as cannibal and
Christian, or slave and free; how does he relate humans and
sea creatures in his descriptions of Stubbs supper and the
sea-fight? How does Stubb relate to the sharks? What roles
do class and race play in Stubbs dining, and how do you
interpret Fleeces sermon to the sharks in paragraph 23.
You might also compare Fleeces sermon with the two other
sermons youve read so far: Father Mapples and that in
the black church. In ch. 65 how does cannibalism relate to
humans and whales? In ch. 68, what does Ishmael mean when
he says: it is pleasant to read about whales through their
own spectacles, as you may say. (p. 333 [245]) Does he
read whales this way? What does Ishmael mean when he
refers to the hieroglyphics on a sperm whale? How does
Ishmael regard ghosts and orthodoxy at the end of ch. 69?
Does he believe in them? How do you interpret Ahab
soliloquy to the sperm whales head in ch. 70, paragraph 7.

8
Closely analyze this paragraph and the last paragraph of ch.
70. In Acts 27, a ship carrying St. Paul is lost among
contrary winds, and Paul tells his captors that an angel has
informed him to have faith in God and they will land safely.
A wind subsequently blows them to shore. What does Ahab
mean by St. Pauls breeze? What is Ahabs
breezelesness? In this last paragraph of ch. 70, is Ahab
contemplating what lies behind the pasteboard mask that he
refers to in ch. 36?
Ch. 71: Each of the other meetings with other ships
reflects in some way upon the situation aboard the Pequod,
presenting either an alternative course of action, or an
omen or foreshadowing. Does the Jeroboams story offer a
lesson for the Pequod? Who was the biblical Jeroboam? (See
1 Kings 11-14). In Christianity, Gabriel is an archangel
whose main function is to deliver messages from God. What
messages does Melvilles Gabriel deliver to Ahab? How would
you compare Gabriel to Elijah (from the beginning of the
novel)? What similar warning do both deliver? And how
would you compare Gabriel to Ahab, and why does Gabriel call
Ahabs quest blasphemy, echoing Starbucks using
blasphemy in ch. 36. How does the nature of Maceys death
affect your understanding of Moby Dick?
Ch. 72: Read this chapter carefully. What is the purpose
of the monkey-rope? How does it function as a metaphor for
Ishmael? How does the message of the monkey-rope relate to
the two-stranded lesson of Father Mapples sermon or of
Fleeces sermon? Is the message of the monkey-rope a good
thing or a bad thing? Is Ishmaels relationship with
Queequeg different here than in the first part of the book?
You might also relate the monkey-rope to Ishmaels
other meditations on weaving: ch. 1 is Loomings; in ch.
47, Ishmael and Queequeg weave a mat; in ch. 93, Pip will
see Gods foot upon the treadle of the loom of His creation;
and in ch. 102, Ishmael will refer to God as a weaver. How
does the monkey-rope relate to these various weaves?
Chs. 73-80: What do you make of Stubbs believing that
Fedallah is the devil in disguise? At the end of ch. 73,
when the Pequod is aslant, what rights the ship? By naming
the two whales heads John Locke and Immanuel Kant, what
larger point is Ishmael making? Why do you suppose Ishmael
is so fascinated with heads? How do you interpret Ishmael
calling the Right Whales head a Stoic and the Sperm
Whales head a Platonian at the end of ch. 75? How does

9
this contrast with Ahabs views? What is the meaning of the
last sentence of ch. 78, in Ishmaels commentary on Tashtego
falling into the whales head? In ch. 79, The Prairie,
how does Ishmael relate reading a humans head to a whales
head?
Ch. 81: How do you interpret the Pequods encounter with
the Jungfrau (Virgin)? Where is the ship from? What do
they know about Moby Dick? Why is Stubb so upset with
Jungfrau crew? What are the Germans doing as the Pequod
leaves the scene? What does Ishmael mean by the last
sentence?
Chs. 82-86: What is the purpose of placing The Honor and
Glory of Whaling right after the ugly incident with the
Jungfrau and the old whale? How does Ishmael compare and
contrast the spiritual and material values of whaling? How
would you relate the historical Jonah, as told by Ishmael in
ch. 83, with the Jonah in Father Mapples sermon? At the
start of ch. 85, how long have they been at sea? Compare
Ishmaels attitude toward religion and heaven at the
beginning of the book (see, for instance, the top half of p.
42 [45], end of ch. 7), with those in the last paragraph in
ch. 85. Has his views changed? If so, how? In the whales
mist and the rainbow, how is the spiritual visible in the
material? What is the relationship between real strength
or power and beauty on p. 411 [294] of ch. 86? How does
this relate to the relationship between power and beauty
existing in society? When the whale is peaking, his tail
points straight up and his head points down; what does
Ishmael say about the meaning of this and what it depends
upon? How is the final paragraph of ch. 86 relevant to
Ishmaels attempts to understand the whale?
Ch. 87: How do you interpret this chapter? As the Pequod
pursues the Grand Armada of sperm whales, what pursues them?
What do you make of Ishmaels description of Ahabs brow on
p. 419 [299]? Contrast Ahabs brow on pp. 215 [166-167] and
419 [299] with the whales brow on p. 379 [274]. How does
Starbucks boat get into the center of the whale pod? What
is the significance of Queequeg mistaking an umbilical cord
for a harpoon line? How do you interpret Ishmael saying
that while ponderous planets of unwaning woe revolve round
me, deep down and deep inland there I still bathe me in
eternal mildness of joy. How does this relate to the
scene, immediately following, of the wounded whale,
tormented to madness, now churning through the water,

10
violently flailing with his flexible tail, and tossing the
keen spade about him, wounding and murdering his own
comrades? (p. 424-425 [303-304]) What do you make of the
fact that the only families we see in the novel are these
families of whales? Who and what is to blame for the
disruption of this idyllic domestic scene? How do you
compare the domestic scene of the whales with that of
Ishmael and Queequeg at the Spouter-Inn? How does whaling
affect families (both human and whale)?
Chs. 88-92: How does Ishmael further humanize whales in ch.
88? What are the points of difference for him between male
and female schools? How would you contrast Ishmaels
attempt to construct a hierarchy of families with his system
of cetology? What is a fast fish and what is a loose fish
literally? What are they metaphorically? How does he
extend the metaphor to the act of reading and writing? In
what ways are you a loose fish reader and in what ways are
you a fast fish reader? How might Ishmaels ruminations on
loose fish and fast fish relate to national concerns at the
time he was writing the novel in 1850? Where is the Rosebud from, and what situation does it find itself in? What
do they know of Moby Dick? What is the significance of
Ahabs action at the end of ch. 91 when Stubb is trying to
harvest the ambergris?
Ch. 93-95: Why does Stubb take Pip and not Dough-Boy in his
boat? How does Ishmael contrast Pip with Dough-Boy? What
is the significance of Stubbs comment to Pip the first time
Pip jumped overboard (p. 452 [320-321]). How is Pip changed
and why? Read the last three chapters of ch. 93 very
carefully. How is mans insanity heavens sense?
Contrast how knowledge affects Pip in relation to Ishmael?
What do you make of ch. 94, Squeeze of the Hand, coming
immediately after the chapter of Pips insanity? Why does
the crews squeezing the lumps of sperm make Ishmael forget
about our horrible oath? (p. 455 [322]) How does Ishmael
understand happiness in the wake of his squeezing? How do
you compare the strange sort of insanity that comes over
Ishmael (456 [322]) with the insanity of Ahab and Pip? Does
Ishmaels communal squeezing of the sperm whale relate to
other scenes in the novel? Read ch. 94 carefully. How do
you interpret the Cassock, ch. 95, coming immediately
after the Squeeze of the Hand? What are the images in
this chapter in relation to those in ch. 94?

11
Ch. 96-98: How do you interpret the imagery of the TryWorks on pp. 462-463 [326-327])? What do you make of
Ishmael describing the harpooners as wildly gesticulat[ing]
with their huge pronged forks and dippers? (p. 463 [327])
What causes such imagery? How does the blackness of
darkness here contrast with the blackness of darkness in
the black church of ch. 1? What startles Ishmael from his
dream-like state, and what biblical significance does it
imply? What realization does Ishmael come to in the wake of
his dream-like state? Read the last three paragraphs of ch.
96 very carefully; they are some of the most beautiful in
literature. Compare these final paragraphs of ch. 96 with
the final paragraph of The Fountain, ch. 85? What is the
relationship between wisdom, woe, and madness? How does
this passage illuminate Ahab, Starbuck, and Pip?
Ch. 99: Read this chapter very carefully. It focuses on
Ishmaels epistemology (how we know what we know); his views
about our relationship to reality, and his method of
symbolism. How does each persons reading of the doubloon
reflect his character and how he views the world and his
place in it? What do you make of Stubbs interpretations of
the readings of Queequeg, Fedallah, and Pip? What is
important about Pips reading? Note that, aside from
Ishmael, there are eight characters who offer their opinions
about the doubloon.
Chs. 100-104: What is the significance of the meeting with
the Samuel Enderby? What important information does Ahab
find out? What did Moby Dick do in his encounter with the
Samuel Enderby, and what light does this shed on the
questions of agent/principal and consciously malign
force/dumb brute? Compare Captains Broomers and Ahabs
attitudes toward Moby dick (pp. 481-482 [339-340]) What is
the significance of what Boomer whispers to Fedallah, and
Fedallahs response? When Ishmael seizes Jonahs privilege
alone, and gets inside the whale in ch. 102, what does he
find? How do you interpret the symbolism of weaving in the
long paragraph on pp. 489-490 [345])? Why does Ishmael,
after describing his journey inside the whale, have the
skeletal dimensions tattooed on himself?
Chs. 105-115: Why does Ishmael account the whale immortal
in his species, however perishable in his individuality?
(p. 503-504 [354]) How do you interpret Ahabs ivory limb
having been so violently displace, that it all but
pierced his groin? (p. 505 [355]). Why is the carpenter

12
different from the other crew members and why does Ishmael
say that he is no duplicate? In ch. 108, why does the
structure turn again to a stage play? In ch. 109, why does
Ahab level a loaded gun at Starbuck? How does their clash
contrast with what happened on the Town-Ho? Why wont Ahab
stop to fix a leak, and what induces him to change his mind?
Why does Queequeg get sick and how does Pip figure in his
sickness? Contrast Ishmaels and Ahabs perceptions of
Queequeg at the end of ch. 110. In the last paragraph of
ch. 110, Ishmael compares Queequeg to a riddle to unfold; a
wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even
himself could read. (p. 524 [366-367]) What does he mean
by this? How do Ishmaels ruminations on death in ch. 112,
pp. 528-529 [369-370] compare with those at the opening of
the novel? How do you interpret the making of the harpoons
in ch. 113? What does the Bachelor have in common with the
Pequod and how is it different? Compare this meeting with
the Pequods first meeting with the Albatross. How do you
interpret the captain of the Bachelors good humor in
relation to him say that he lost two islanders, not
enough to speak of? (p. 538 [375]) What is the symbolic
significance of Ahabs final action with the small vial of
sand on p. 538 [375]?
Chs. 116-117: At the opening of ch. 116, the last whales
are killed, one of them by Ahab. Given his obsession with
finding Moby-Dick, why does he hunt down these whales? What
does Ahab make of the fact that the dying whales turn toward
the sun? What is Ahabs own relationship with the sun (see
for example ch. 36)? How does Ahabs soliloquy in the last
three paragraphs of ch. 116 relate to Ishmaels ruminations
at the end of the Try-Works, ch. 96? In ch. 117, The
Whale Watch, Fedallah makes four prophecies to Ahab that,
by literary convention, we accept as true. What four things
does he prophesize must happen before Ahab can die? For
those who have read Macbeth, do you see a deliberate
intertext in these prophecies? What is the effect of
Fedallahs prophecies on Ahab and his quest for the white
whale? How would you characterize Ahabs relationship with
Fedallah?
Chs. 118-122: What is the function of a quadrant? Why
specifically does Ahab destroy the quadrant, and what is the
significance of his action? Why does Ahab curse the
quadrant? Why does he prefer the ships compass, and the
level dead-reckoning, by log and by line? (p. 544 [378])
Compare Starbucks and Stubbs responses to Ahab destroying

13
the quadrant: what imagery does each use? Compare
Starbucks language with that of Ishmael while facing the
Try-Works in his dream-state (ch. 96). In ch. 119, what are
candles? Why does the narrative turn into a stage play in
this chapter? What significance do you attach to the
following omens: the typhoon (p. 546 [379]); Ahabs stove
boat and Starbucks comment to Stubb (p. 548 [380]); the
yard-arms (p. 549 [381]); the reference to God writing on
the wall prophesizing the destruction of Babylon from ch. 5
of the Book of Daniel (p. 549 [381]); the image of the
harpooners (p. 549 [381]); what Ahab tells the crew and
their response (p. 551-552 [383])? Why does Queequegs
tattoo burn like Satanic blue flames on his body? (p. 549
[381]) Read Ahabs speeches on pp. 550-552 [382-384]
carefully; what is he saying? What does he mean by the
personified impersonal? What does he say he will respond
and submit to, and what does he refuse to submit to? What
does he mean by, I am darkness leaping out of light,
leaping out of thee? Compare this color symbolism with
that in the Whiteness of the Whale, ch. 42. Why does
Starbuck tell Ahab that God is against him?
Chs. 123-124: In ch. 123, The Musket, how does Starbuck
justify murdering Ahab? How do you interpret Starbucks
line that Ahab would be the wilful murderer of thirty men
and more, if this ship come to any deadly harm? (p. 558
[387]) Why doesnt Starbuck kill Ahab? The phrase
wrestling with an angel at the chapters end is a biblical
allusion to Jacob wrestling with an angel; what light does
it shine on Starbucks dilemma? How does Ahabs work with
the needle relate to other metaphors of threads? Why does
Starbuck look away as Ahab fixes the needle?
Chs. 125-131: In ch. 125, why is Ahab so moved by and kind
to Pip? How would your characterize their relationship?
Compare it to that of Ishmael and Queequeg at the beginning
of the novel. In ch. 126, what is the symbolic significance
of Queequegs coffin becoming a life-buoy? What is the
significance of the Pequod meeting the Rachel? Who was the
biblical Rachel, and how is her story an appropriate
intertext for Captain Gardiner of the Rachel? What are the
differences in attitudes toward Moby-Dick and toward family
shown by Ahab and Captain Gardiner? What Christian
principle does Gardiner base his appeal to Ahab on, and
where did we see an earlier appeal invoked by Ishmael in the
novel? What is the significance of the meeting with the
delight in ch. 131? What omens are there in this chapter?

14
What hint regarding Fedallahs prophecies to Ahab do you see
in the last sentence of ch. 131?
Ch. 132: In the Symphony, what do we learn about Ahab
that makes us sympathize with him? Is there a
reconciliation between Starbuck and Ahab in this chapter?
Why does Starbuck call Ahab a noble soul? What is the
significance of the questions Ahab asks himself on p. 592
[406-407]? What is the significance of the way this chapter
ends, in the last three paragraphs, and how does it relate
to the question Ahab asked about Moby Dick in ch. 36 about
agent and principal.
Chs. 133-135: Who is the first to spot Moby Dick and win
the doubloon? In what way is this ironic or appropriate?
What is the difference between the way Ahab reads the omens
and the way everyone else reads them? What is the symbolic
significance of three days of a chase? What is Starbucks
final appeal to Ahab and God on p. 611 [418]? How does Ahab
respond? How do Fedallahs first two prophecies come true?
What is Ahabs response? How do Starbuck, Stubb, and Flask
meet their fates, and how is this in character for each?
How does Ishmael characterize Moby Dick here? How does
Fedallahs third prophecy come true? How does the narrator
describe Ahab meeting his fate? How, in the last moment of
Ahabs life, is Fedallahs fourth prophecy realized? What
is the last image of the book before the epilogue? What
symbolic significance do you give to the sky-hawk, the bird
of heaven?
Epilogue: How do you read symbolism of the vortex, and what
symbolism do you read into Ishmaels being held afloat by
Queequegs coffin? If you know who the biblical Ishmael and
Rachel are, how is it both ironic and meaningful that
Ishmael is saved by the Rachel? Does the voyage regenerate
Ishmael? How is he different at the end of the novel than
at the beginning? You might try rereading ch. 1 after
finishing the epilogue.
Congratulations on finishing Moby-Dick!!! If you want to
reread it, there is a Moby-Dick read-a-thon on January 3 in
New Bedford. Attenders take turns reading it aloud. It
begins at noon, the day Melville set sail on the Acushnet,
and it takes 24 hours. Its thus very monomaniacal.