Moby-Dick as An Allegory of the Quest on An Individual Soul

Moby-Dick is an engaging story of a man’s heroic pursuit and fights with a white whale. Nevertheless, the novel has a deeper meaning. One can interpret an allegorical purpose by delving into Captain Ahab’s epic journey of hunting Moby Dick. Ahab’s unstoppable quest for the white whale depicts a forceful human nature to conquer the evil of the mysterious universe that lies ahead.

Although apparently, it is just a story of adventure on the sea, ending in the destruction of the protagonist and his companions by a sea monster, the symbolic meaning is not far to seek.

The novel symbolizes the conflict between good and evil, which is always going on in this world. Captain Ahab’s crusade against the white whale interprets as the fight of the principle of goodness against the principle of evil, symbolized by the white whale. However, of course, various other interpretations of the story are possible.

Moby-Dick Carries The Subject Matter of Moral Conflict

The moral conflict that is going on between the good and evil forces of nature has been the subject matter of many great literary works, including Shakespeare’s King Lear or Hardy’s Tess of D’urberville.

The sea is the symbol of the mystery of the universe, is also a very well-known symbol. In Moby-Dick, the fight between good and evil takes the form of an enduring enmity between Captain Ahab and the great white whale, aka Moby- Dick.

To captain Ahab, the white whale is wholly evil. The evil nature of the monster became established in Ahab’s mind on the day when one of his legs had been snatched away by the white whale in an encounter. Since then, the white whale had become, in Ahab’s eyes, an incarnation of all those malicious agencies which are a source of suffering for human beings.

The three-day chase of the white whale is motivated by Ahab’s vindictiveness. The final encounter kills Ahab and his men (except Ishmael); hence, the good is vanquished by evil, as often happens in this world.

Captain Ahab’s Pursuit of The White Whale Is More Personal Than Being Survival

It is also possible to see Ahab as a man who figures in a symbolic fable. He is a hero like Beowulf fighting against nature’s dark and terrible forces, thus asserting man’s place in nature. Ahab’s strong will is the symbol of man’s indomitable will and courage. Of course, there is some danger in this kind of over-simplification.

The allegorical significance of Moby Dick centers on Ahab and the whale. However, it is too mysterious and remote to serve an allegorical purpose throughout the story. Ahab is a man who declares him to be a sovereign individual amid the powers of heaven, hell, and earth. Such a man may perish; however, it does not stop him from considering himself as the equal of all the powers of the universe till his last breath.

What Ahab seeks is not the actual white whale but a symbolic white whale. In other words, Ahab seeks an understanding of the ultimate mystery of the universe. He thinks that there is inscrutable malice that gives the white whale its outrageous strength. By getting at the whale, he wants to get at that mysterious evil power of the universe.

Critics Portray Ahab As A Devilish Symbol Himself

Many critics have seen Ahab himself as the symbol of evil. According to them, Ahab is guilty of hubris or excessive pride. His alienation from his fellow human beings makes him demonic and egotistical. One critic has seen him as a human embodiment of Lucifer, Satan, and the Devil. He seemed to possess all Satan’s pride and energy.

The ceremonies in which Ahab and his administer take an oath to bind them to the pursuit of the white whale is suggestive of the Black Mass. By this, Ahab and his men (except for Starbuck) represent many primitive impulses and practices that the Christians have rejected and excluded.

Like Ahab, the white whale also takes on various symbolic meanings. Ishmael believes that the white whale is an impersonal life force, indifferent to the desires and wishes of human beings. Allegorical interpretations of the Ahab-whale conflict have been many-fold.

Final Words

It may be regarded as a struggle between individualism and socialism or between science and nature. Nevertheless, the most plausible interpretation is probably to see the fight as an allegory of the pursuit of absolute truth in this world and the disastrous failure of that pursuit.

Symbolically, Ahab is contending with a mysterious entity that has always eluded the grasps of all scientists, thinkers, and philosophers.

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