Presentaci n 1_melville

Unit 1: Herman Melville’s Moby Dick

1ILN 2011-2012, Silvia Martínez Falquina

Unit 1 outline

1. Herman Melville’s life, works and literary significance

2. An introduction to Moby Dick (1851)

3. Movie: Moby Dick, dir. John Huston (1956)

4. Novel: analysis of chapters 1, 28, 34, 41


1. H. Melville’s Life, Works and Literary Significance

Handout pp. 1-4

The basics: • Heredity but loss of fortune • Works at several odd jobs• Sails on various whaler ships (lives with a tribe

in the Marquesas, explores in Tahiti and Eimeo, Honolulu...)

• 1844 starts writing, with irregular success, revival from 1919

• Psychological, economic and familiar distress


Main works

Typee (1846)

Omoo (1847)

Mardi (1849)

Redburn (1849)

White Jacket (1850)

Moby Dick; or The Whale (1851)


Main works (cont.)

Pierre (1852)Israel Potter (1855)The Piazza Tales (1856)The Confidence Man (1857)

Battle Pieces (1866)

Clarel (1876)

Billy Budd (posthumous, 1924)


Relevance

•“The man who lived among the cannibals”•“The first American literary sex symbol”•Mostly appreciated as author of travel narratives•Not admired for more philosophical works•Criticised for his style and morals•Forgotten in the postbellun literary world•Revival on centennial in 1919•Today: mass consumption of Melville in classroom and popular culture


Main themes

• Religion: original sin and evil / innocence

• Man in society and nature

• Man as maker of his own identity:

– Appearances

– Mortality

– Inability to know the universe

– Need for love and his fellow men

• Race

– civilized/savage

• Gender and sexuality

– Masculine world

– Homoerotic overtones7ILN 2011-2012, Silvia Martínez

Falquina

Melville’s influences and styleExperience (sea voyages, whaling)

Hawthorne• Influence in Moby Dick (dedicated to Hawthorne): style, quest for the meaning of life… • Melville’s review “Hawthorne and his Mosses” (1850)

In common: • obscurity, darkness and pessimism• Romantic concern with good and evil• philosophical ideas and obsessions• Two kinds of audience: the mob and the eagle-eyed

Differences: • Hawthorne: individuals• Melville: philosophical or metaphysical matters (more negative view)


Melville’s influences and style

Dark Romanticism• Hawthorne, Melville, Edgar Allan Poe • View of Man: moral struggle with evil; feelings and intuition; dark interior• View of God: good v. evil; sin and its psychological effects on people • View of Nature: evil found in setting and symbol; often the supernatural • View of Society: must be reformed

Shakespeare (Style, poetic diction, verbal exuberance, especially in dramatic monologues)

The Bible (Old Testament)


An introduction to Moby Dick

Handout p. 5• Reception and relevance• Context • General interpretation• Plot• Themes• Characters• Narrative voice• Influences, style and tone• Symbolism• Epilogue


Reception and Relevance

From...

“ an ill compounded mixture of romance and matter of fact. It is a crazy sort of affair, stuffed with conceits and oddities of all kinds, put in artificially, deliberately and affectedly” (Boston Post, November 20, 1851)

To…

“The best American novel”

“An American classic by the American Shakespeare” (common views, today)


ContextComing of age of the US (economical, political, social)

– definition of Americanness, American democracy, …

Mexican-American war 1846-48 and

Civil War 1861-65 – Imperialism, liberty, American individualism, race…

In literature: •1850s American Renaissance•Debate: American vs. English


General interpretation

Two narrative levels:•A voyage on board a whaler which ends tragically•The conflict between human life and nature, the quest for the meaning of life

Various possible readings: •Religious symbolism•Adventure story•Nature documentary •(...)


Plot

Initial situation

• Ishmael goes on his first whaling voyage aboard the Pequod.

• In New Bedford he meets Queequeg

• Introduction of the Pequod crew


“How it is I know not; but there is no place like a bed for confidential disclosures between friends. Man and wife, they say, there open the very bottom of their souls to each other; and some old couples often lie and chat over old times till nearly morning. Thus, then, in our hearts' honeymoon, lay I and Queequeg—a cosy, loving pair” (Chapter 10)


Plot

Conflict • Ishmael is caught up in

Captain Ahab’s quest for revenge on the White Whale, Moby Dick.

• Ahab makes his first appearance and shows his obsession


“Come, Ahab's compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me. Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents' beds, unerringly I rush! Naught's an obstacle, naught's an angle to the iron way!” (Chapter 37)


Plot

Complication

• While Ahab searches for Moby Dick, the Pequod continues everyday whaling activities

• Conflict between the official purpose of the ship and Ahab’s secret one


Plot

Between Chapter 36 (Ahab’s declaration of his real quest) and Chapter 133 (Ahab sees Moby Dick): – Whale biology, industry, and sea voyages – An extra boat crew– The Pequod’s journey– Bad omens

Climax• Captain Ahab sights Moby Dick.


Everett Henry The Voyage of the Pequod from the book Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Cleveland: Harris-Seybold, 1956


http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/1831s.jpg

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/1831s.jpg

“Fashioned at last into an arrowy shape, and welded by Perth to the shank, the steel soon pointed the end of the iron; and as the blacksmith was about giving the barbs their final heat, prior to tempering them, he cried to Ahab to place the water-cask near.‘No, no - no water for that; I want it of the true death-temper. Ahoy, there! Tashtego, Queequeg, Daggoo! What say ye, pagans! Will ye give me as much blood as will cover this barb?’ holding it high up. A cluster of dark nods replied, Yes. 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” (Chapter 18)


Plot

Suspense

• The Pequod chases Moby Dick for three days


Plot

Denouement• Moby Dick

destroys the Pequod and nearly everyone on board is killed…

• Ahab’s drowning/ strangling death


“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!” (Chapter 135)


Plot

Conclusion

• Epilogue: only Ishmael survives to tell the story

• He is saved by Queequeg’s coffin


Themes

•Obession, revenge and madness•Fate and free will•Good/evil•Nature•Truth, knowledge, language•Race•Gender and sexuality


Characters•Ishmael•Ahab•Queequeg•Moby Dick•Starbuck•Stubb•Flask•Tashtego•Dagoo•Pip•Fedallah


Narrative voice

•Ishmael as first person narrator

– Central (protagonist)

– Peripheral (observer)

•Third person narrator, omniscient

•Dramatic style


Influences, Style and Tone

Influences: •Hawthorne•Shakespeare•Tragedy and medieval romance•Cetology and other areas of knowledge

Style:•Complex, adorned, metaphorical, exuberant...

Tone:•Versatility: thoughtful, elevated, humorous.


Symbolism

•The Pequod

•Moby Dick

•The Gold Doubloon

•Sperm

•Queequeg’s coffin


Epilogue

“And I only am escaped alone to tell thee”

(Job)


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