Pursuing the Whale from Quarantine, part 4

I owe you a short one this time. After the Sturm und Drang (German for "Storm and Drive" -- a favorite phrase of the European Romantics, who vibed with the moody emo drama Ahab has going on) of Chapter 36, we get three short vignettes showing the reactions of three key characters to Ahab's oath.

Chapter 37, Sunset

And first it's Ahab. Don't worry guys, he says, I'm totally not crazy. I'm crazier than crazy! I'm possessed!! "They think me mad—Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened!" (Chapter 37).

(Maybe not so reassuring.)

I Am Madness Maddened
by Gilbert Wilson

If you recall Paradise Lost last year, several of Ahab's comments in this chapter will remind you very strongly of Milton's Satan. "All loveliness is anguish to me," Ahab says, "since I can ne'er enjoy." Satan has a whole soliloquy on that theme, ending with the memorable and devastating line, "Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell" (IV.75). In case you missed it the first time, Ahab makes it clearer: He is "damned in the midst of Paradise!"

"Damned" speaks both to his misery and (per my last post on Chapter 36) the Satanic nature of his quest. By "Satanic," I mean that he rejects all limits over him and sets himself against the Most High--against Fate, or God, or the gods. (Melville is less specific here than Milton was.)

"What I've dared, I've willed; and what I've willed, I'll do! ... The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and -- Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer. Now, then, be the prophet and the fulfiller one. That's more than ye, ye great gods, ever were. I laugh and hoot at ye ... I will not say as schoolboys do to bullies—Take some one of your own size; don’t pommel me! No, ye’ve knocked me down, and I am up again ... Come, Ahab’s compliments to ye; come and see if ye can swerve me."

Ahab is the scrappy kid who just got the snot beat out of him, picking himself up, dusting himself off, and saying to the bully twice his size, "Try that again!" We love that scene. What does it say about us that we love that scene?

Chapter 38, Dusk

Faithful Starbuck. He's right: this is a terrible idea. Also, as grandiose as Ahab may seem in his reckless defiance, Starbuck reminds us that he's an absolute tyrant. (Men who think they can take on God usually are.) "Who's over him, he cries; -- aye, he would be a democrat to all above; look, how he lords it over all below!"

"Gottem!" (---S. Forshey)

But what can Starbuck do when the whole crew has enthusiastically joined this megalomaniac? Only pray: "Stand by me, hold me, bind me, O ye blessed influences!"

Chapter 39, First Night-Watch

And what does Stubb think of all this? Stubb, who loves nothing so much as his pipe and a comfortable meal, tries not to think too hard about anything. "Damn me, but all things are queer, come to think of ’em," Stubb says, "But that’s against my principles. Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth" (Chapter 29).

So what does Stubb think about all this strange business?

Ha! ha! ha! ha! hem! clear my throat!—I’ve been thinking over it ever since, and that ha, ha’s the final consequence. Why so? Because a laugh’s the wisest, easiest answer to all that’s queer; and come what will, one comfort’s always left—that unfailing comfort is, it’s all predestinated. ... I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I’ll go to it laughing.

Stubb's just here for a good time. But more on that, and on him and why he might be like that, later.

(But if you are the sort who likes hints, see if you can recall what we learned last year about Epicureanism.)

Epicureanism: The Original Party School
by Existential Comics