Good and Evil of Moby Dick and Captain Ahab.

Herman Melvilles Moby Dick is centered on the themes of the good and evil of Moby Dick and Captain Ahab.

Here are some examples of the good nature of Captain Ahab. till Ahab must not be dismissed as merely evil. !n his struggle against all those things that limit human life" there is heroic grandeur of humanity long effort to kno# the meaning of existence"$ %Melville &'&(. !t means that you should not )udge somebody by their actions. He is noble and religious as #ell as sacrilegious" grand" ungodly" godlike man"$ %Melville &'&(. Means that Captain Ahab is also a religious person. !n seeking vengeance upon a dumb brute that attacked and maimed him out of blind instinct" he may seem merely mad" as tarbuck #ould like to believe" but Ahabs madness is of a deeper sort. !n the attack of the #hite #hale" he has felt the pain and shock by #hich humans beings must recogni*e their o#n morality"$ %Melville &'+(. !t means that )ust because Captain Ahab is mad doesnt mean that it is not for a good reason.

Here are some examples of the good nature in Moby Dick. ,he #hite #hale is a test of limitations" of moving onto being happy and content"$ %Helium -(. ,he #hale is something that Ahab needs to be happy about and get on #ith his life" #hich like the .uote says" a test of acceptable limitations.$ ,he #hite #hale is #hite for

this symbolic reason and the narrator of the story comes to reali*ation of ho# out of reach Moby Dick actually is that the .uest is folly"$ %Helium -(. ,hey are saying the color #hite on the #hale is /od #ho surrounds himself #ith good. Melville sho#s that although the #hale" symbolical #hale" is mostly representative of good" no one thing is purely good or purely evil"$ %Helium +(. ,hat the #hale is not all that evil through his actions. Here are some examples of the evil nature of Captain Ahab. !shmael" %the narrator( responds that the biblical Ahab #as a #icked king" but 0eleg insists that the name is simply a misfortunate" not a prediction of Ahabs character"$ %1o#e '2(. ,his is saying that the biblical Ahab is evil" but it shouldnt have to be described like the biblical Ahab. Ahab is a defiant rebel against all human limitations. He #ill sacrifice life itself in his search for truth3 ,ruth hath no confines"$ %Melville &4'(. ,his means that Ahab #ill do anything to kill Moby Dick if his #hole being has to do or die on his voyage to kill Moby Dick. Captain Ahab #as a man #ho had left life on land" a #ife" and children all behind in his .uest after Moby Dick"$ %Helium &(. Means that Captain Ahab does not care about anybody or anything" but killing Moby Dick and going back to his normal life. 5ut it is !shmael" not Ahab" #ho reali*es the meaning of this fateful voyage" it is through !shmaels vision that #e see that Ahabs .uest for absolute truth must result in suicide" the sacrifice of the ship of humanity"$ %Melville &'&(. ,his means #ill risk anything or anyone to get his revenge on Moby Dick for biting his leg off. 6nce the maimed Captain Ahab %#ho combines .ualities of the biblical 7ob #ith 7ohn Miltons atan(" subverts the voyage from catastrophe seems

foredoomed"$ %1o#e '&(. Means that Captain Ahab is )ust like 7ohn Miltons atan from the bible or 7ob" like they used from the bible.

ome say that there is some evil in Moby Dick" and here are some examples of things that make Moby Dick is evil3 Ahab believes he sees evil in Moby Dick a principle of absolute evil" but !shmael observes early in the novel that the great #hite #hale has no face" no expression3 people read only their o#n meanings into blank #hiteness"$ %Melville &'&(. Ahab sees evil in Moby Dick because of #hat he looks like8 of course he is so huge and nothing can destroy it. 6n an earlier voyage" Ahab lost a leg to the )a#s of the giant #hale kno#n as Moby Dick"$ %Melville &'+(. !t expresses ho# evil Moby Dick #as to people #ho tried to kill him. Moby Dick seemed combining possessed by all the angels that fell from heaven"$ %Melville &'4(. ,his means that all the angels that #ere good fell from heaven and landed in hell and turned into the great #hite #hale Moby Dick.

And to sum it all up" these are the reasons of #hy there is good and evil in everybody even if you are an animal or even a human being.