"Moby Dick is biographic of
Melville in the sense that it discloses every nook and cranny of his
imagination." (Humford 41) This paper is a psychological study of Moby
Dick. Moby Dick was written out of Melville's
person experiences.
Moby Dick is a story of the adventures a
person named Ishmael.
Ishmael is a
lonely, alienated individual who wants to see the "watery part of the
world." Moby Dick begins with the
main character, Ishmael, introducing himself with the line "Call Me
Ishmael." (Melville 1) Ishmael
tells the reader about his background and creates a depressed mood for the
reader. Call me Ishmael. "Some
years ago-nevermind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse,
and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a
little and see the watery part of the world." (Melville 1) Ishmael tells the reader about his journeys
through various towns such as New Bedford, Nankantuket. Eventually while in Nankantuket, Ishmael
signed up for a whaling voyage on the Pequod.
The Pequod was the whaling boat Ishmael sailed on where such characters
as Queequeq, Starbuck, and the captain of the ship, Ahab, all journeyed
together.
Not long once at sea, the captain of the
ship, Ahab reveals his plan to hunt down a white whale named Moby Dick. Ahab
was veteran sailor, a man that had a heart of stone. Ahab had a personal grudge against Moby
Dick. Moby Dick was responsible for
taking off Ahab's leg in a previous voyage. Ahab's plan was essentially an
unauthorized takeover, what the whaling company had not in mind. Ahab was very irrational and ludicrous; his
plan seals the fate for himself and the crew of the Pequod. In the tragic ending of Moby Dick, all of the
characters die except for Ishmael. Ishmael survived Moby Dick's attack of the
ship with the help of a coffin that his close friend Queequeq built. Ishmael of Moby Dick was a special character because he closely
relates to the author's own life. There
are many symbolism's between Ishmael of Moby Dick and Herman Melville's own
life. The name Ishmael can be traced
back to the Bible. The Biblical story of
Ishamel is one of a rejected outcast. This
"rejected outcast" can be linked to Ishmael of Moby Dick and Herman
Melville's own life. In Herman
Melville's Moby Dick, Ishmael is symbolic of the author's own life.
Herman Melville's childhood played an
important part in his life. Herman
Melville's childhood is evident throughout his writings. Herman Melville's childhood was an
unconventional one. There were many
twists and turns that Herman experienced.
Melville was born on August 1, 1819, in New York City, the third of
eight children. His mother's family the
Gansevoorts of Albany were Dutch brewers who settled in Albany in the
seventeenth century achieving the status of landed gentry. "The Gansevoorts were solid, stable,
eminent, prosperous people; the (Herman's Father's side) Melvilles were
somewhat less successful materially, possessing an unpredictable. erratic,
mercurial strain." (Edinger 6) This difference between the Melville's and
Gansevoorts was the beginning of the trouble for the Melville family. Herman's mother tried to work her way up the
social ladder by moving into bigger and better homes. While borrowing money from the bank, her
husband was spending more than he was earning.
"It is my conclusion that Maria Melville never committed herself
emotionally to her husband, but remained primarily attached to the well off
Gansevoort family." (Humford 23) Allan Melville was also attached
financially to the Gansevoorts for support.
There is a lot of evidence concerning Melville's relation to his mother
Maria Melville. "Apparently the
older son Gansevoort who carried the mother's maiden name was distinctly her
favorite." (Edinger 7) This was a sense of alienation the Herman Melville
felt from his mother. This was one of
the first symbolists to the Biblical Ishamel.
The following are a few excerpts from some of Melville's works that show
evidence of his childhood. A passage
from Melville's Redburn shows that Melville was attached to his mother,
"The name of the mother was the centre of all my hearts finest
feelings." (Melville 33) The following poem that Melville wrote shows his
unreciprocated love for his mother.
I made the junior feel his place
Subserve the senior, love him too;
And soothe he does, and that is his
saving grace
But me the meek one never can serve,
Hot he, he lacks quality keen
To make the mother through the soon
An envied dame of power a social
queen. (Melville 211)
Herman's father's side originally Scots
with connections in the peerage, were Boston merchants. Herman's father, Allan Melville, was a
merchant and importer dealing with French goods.
Allan Melville's family was not as high on
the social ladder as the Gansevoorts were.
"Allan Melville seems to have been socially charming and sensitive,
but basically weak, with a long standing dependence on his father, and more
especially on his wife's bother Peter Gansevoort." (Humford 33)
"Allan Melville's sons may have found a more substantial father experience
with their maternal uncle Peter Gansevoort." (Edinger 8) Hermans father was to busy with business
causing his children to find their uncle as the father figure. This was the
start for the financial collapse that later happened Allan Melville was
unrealistic and had a lot of wishful optimism.
"He seems to have been a man who constantly lived beyond his means,
continually expecting a great windfall to be around the corner." (Humford
35) When Allan Melville was borrowing money for his business, he was trying to
fulfill his wife's social ambitions by moving into larger homes. Eventually that bubble burst and Allan
Melville had fallen into a total financial and psychological collapse. Although Allan Melville meant well, he was
not managing his money properly and all of this stress took a toll on his
family
The masculine figure in the family was the
uncle, Peter Gansevoort. Not long after
Allan Mellville's financial collapse he died.
Herman's father's death and his father's dependence on Peter Gansevoort
probably had an effect on Herman's early psychological development. Its effects would show up in his later
writings. Herman's relatives helped the
struggling family in any way they could, but they had their own interests
too. At the age of twelve Herman
Melville was forced to stop his education and go to work.
Herman's older brother Gansevoort who was
conventionally the successful one owned a hat store. After a few months of job hunting with no
luck Herman decided to work at his brother's hat store. Gansevoort eventually opened a law office and
later became prominent in politics. Working at his brother's hat store Herman
felt, "This is not the way Herman doubtless felt that one's adolescence
should open." (Humford 40) All of Melville's ambitions to go to college,
become an orator, and travel were stopped.
"Herman was as unambitious as a man of sixty. Such careers do not begin at a hat
shop." (Humford 41) This lost and aimless feeling was similar to the
feelings that the Biblical Ishamel felt.
Unable to get his bearings, not knowing
what to do at the age of twenty, Herman signed up as a common sailor on a
merchant vessel sailing for Liverpool. (Edinger 22) After four months Herman
was back from his voyage still lost and aimless. At the age of twenty one he signed up for a
four year voyage on a whaling ship. (Edinger 22) While people his age were in
college Melville wrote in Moby Dick, "A whaling ship was my Yale College
and Harvard." "From a cultivated, genteel environment, Melville was
suddenly plunged, unprepared into the coarse life of the sea." (Rosenberry
31)
"Moby Dick begins with the striking
sentence, 'Call me Ishmael,' we are immediately confronted with the figure of
the rejected outcast, the alienated man." (Porter 15) At the beginning of
Judaic mythical history stands the figure of Abraham, the progenitor of the
Jews. Abraham had two sons, Isaac, the
legitimate, the accepted one, and Ishmael, the illegitimate, the rejected
one. In the Bible (Gen:16) an angel
speaks to Ishmael's mother Hagar saying;
Behold, you are with a child and shall
bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael; because
the Lord has given heed to your affliction.
He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every
mans' hand against him, and he shall
dwell over against all his kinsman. (Gen:16)
Ishamel and his
mother Hagar were cast into the wilderness to die. God saved Ishmael who lead the Muslims. Issac, Ishmael's brother was a follower of
Christianity. From a Christian viewpoint
Ishmael was the enemy, and one who must be repressed and rejected. "To himself, Ishmael is the rejected
orphan who through no fault of his own has been cruelly cast out and condemned
to wander beyond the pale." (McSwenny 25) This sense of rejection can be
connected Melville's life by his mother's favoritism toward her other son and
Herman's father's untimely death.
Herman's journeys at sea can also be interpreted as alienation and
rejection.
Melville's writings show that he was
preoccupied throughout his life with figure of Ishmael. In Mardi he writes, "sailors are mostly
foundlings and castaways and carry their kith and kin in their arms and
legs." (Melville 21) In Redburn Melville writes "at last I have found
myself a sort of Ishmael on the ship, without a single friend or
companion." (60) In Pierre Melville writes "so that once more he
might not feed himself driven out an Ishmael into the desert, with no maternal
Haggard to accompany and comfort him." (125)
"Melville had what might be called an
'Ishmael complex.'" It had two sources; personal life experience and
identification with an archetypal image." (Edinger 16) The personal cause
would be the insanity and death of his father and the following hardships. Melville was twelve and a half at the time
when his father died, close to the Biblical Ishmael who was thirteen. In addition, he was rejected by his mother,
who favored her first son, "...acceptance and rejection are properly
alternating phases in the developmental process...to become identified with
only one these opposites leads to an arrested development." Herman
Melville's lack of acceptance in his life caused himself to identify with the
Biblical figure of Ishmael.
(Humford 25) "Most of the action is seen through the eyes of
Ishmael. He will thus represent the author's ego..." (Edinger 10) Melville
was the rejected sibling much like the Biblical Ishmael.
If Melville was personally identified with
the figure of Ishmael, it has more than a personal meaning, it represents the
opposing attitude. "To speak as
Ishmael means to speak from a position outside the orthodox an
conventional." (Glien 89) If there is any doubt that the name Ishmael
symbolizes a state of alienation and despair, this doubt can not survive the
first paragraph of Moby Dick.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago-nevermind how long precisely- having little or
no money in my purse, and nothing particular
to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world....whenever
it is a damp, drizzly
November in my soul... (Melville 1)
Numerous literary
critics have pointed out the first line of Moby Dick "Call Me
Ishmael." (Melville 1) "What does the opening sentence of Moby Dick
mean? Ishmael is trying to say never mind what my real name is but think of me
as a rejected outcast." (Dickinson 23) The mood of a "damp, drizzly
November in the soul," sets the whole mood for the whole novel. "It is a state of depression, emptiness,
and alienation from life values." (Glien 60)
Herman Melville experienced many hardships
in his life; Beginning with his unstable childhood and the slight rejection by
his mother, more of a favoritism toward another sibling. The father was not the center male figure in
the family, it was the maternal uncle.
His father was a weak willed individual who lived beyond his means and
had a dependence on his brother in law for financial support. Melville's father also went bankrupt, had a
mental collapse, and then died. These
experiences had a psychological impact on him that lasted his whole life. These hardships are evident throughout his
writings and symbolized in Moby Dick by the character Ishmael. The name Ishmael can be traced back to the
Biblical story of Ishmael, who was alienated child. The story of Ishmael closely relates to
Melville's life. There is a vast amount
of evidence proving that Melville knew of the Biblical story of Ishmael and
purposely named Ishmael of Moby Dick, Ishmael.
Works Cited
The Bible.
Revised Standard Version.
Edinger, Edward.
Melville's Moby Dick: A Jungian Commentary. New York: New Directions Books, 1978.
Glein, William.
The Meaning of Moby Dick. NewYork: Russel & Russel, 1962.
Humford, Lewis.
Herman Melville. New York: Quinn & Borden Comany Inc, 1929.
McSweeny, Kerry.
Moby Dick, Ishmael's Mighty Book. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.
Melville, Herman.
Mardi. New York: New American Library, 1964.
Melvillle,
Herman. Moby Dick. New York: Hendricks House, 1962.
Melville, Herman.
Pierre. New York: Hendricks House, 1962.
Melville, Herman.
Redburn. Garden City: Doubleday & Co, 1957.
Melville, Herman.
"Timolean," Collected Poems. Chicago: Packard & Co, 1947.
Porter, Carolyn.
"Call Me Ishmael or How to Make Double Talk Speak." New Essays on Moby Dick. Ed. Richard Brodhead.
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986.
Rosenberry,
Edward. Melville. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1979.
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