Analysis of Symbolic Meaning of Moby Dick Abstract: Moby Dick is one of the classic novels of Herman Melville, a famous American novelist in the19th century. This novel contains many symbolic meanings. This paper mainly analyzes the symbolic significance of Captain Ahab, Moby Dick and the whaling ship "Pequod" in order to let readers know Moby Dick better.
Keywords: Moby Dick; Mobidick symbolic meaning;
I. Introduction
Herman melville (18 19-1891) is one of the famous American novelists in the19th century, just like nathaniel hawthorne. Melville didn't get the attention it deserved. It was not until the 1920s that Melville's value was discovered by American literary circles, among which Moby Dick was praised by British writer Mao Mu as one of the top ten literary masterpieces in the world. Melville is known as "Shakespeare" of America. Only Howard, an American contemporary literary critic, said: "How many readers are deeply involved in the contradiction of life and sensitive to the spiritual contradiction expressed by a work of art, how much is the meaning of this book ... Adding accurate, orthodox and authoritative meanings to this book is tantamount to destroying the living durability of this book and the excitement it brings to readers. This persistent suggestibility and excitement is the obvious feature of this novel, which is the essence of Melville's literary skills. "
Second, Moby Dick's profile
Moby Dick tells the story of captain Ahab, who has more than 40 years of whaling experience, leading his crew to chase Moby Dick on the whaling ship "Pequod".
Captain Ahab once fought with a group of whales and was accidentally bitten off by a fierce white whale. This huge white whale is called "Moby Dick" by sailors. In order to avenge himself, the captain decided to kill Mobidick at all costs. He judged Moby Dick's position by experience and intuition, and led the crew on a long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean. On the way, they met many returning whaling ships, and the other side tried to dissuade Ahab from giving up his whaling plan, because Moby Dick was fierce and the casualties would be heavy. However, Ahab was unwavering and determined to kill Mobidick. Although the Pequod was badly damaged by the storm, Ahab asked the crew to move on, and finally found Mobidick after difficulties and obstacles. After several days and nights of hard struggle, Ahab tried his best to stab the harpoon into Mobidick's abdomen, and this fatal knife killed Mobidick. Because the harpoon rope was wrapped around Ahab's neck, when Mobidick struggled, Ahab was thrown into the sea, and at the same time, the Pequod was overturned, so all the crew were killed. Only Ishmael told us this story after he was rescued.
Third, the symbolic significance of Moby Dick
Moby Dick is a typical representative of symbolism in American literature. Moby Dick's main image Moby Dick is one of the most symbolic figures in the novel, and its symbolic significance is various. First of all, Moby Dick is the embodiment of all "evil" in the world. During the struggle between Ahab and his crew and Moby Dick, Moby Dick was noisy in the sea, which made Ahab and his crew suffer greatly, which showed that Ahab was insidious and cunning. It makes people crazy and miserable, and can even destroy people's thoughts and lives. It is the devil in the dark, which makes people frightened and unable to get rid of it. This is Moby Dick-the embodiment of all evil.
Secondly, from the social environment at that time, Moby Dick symbolized the kind of power opposed to producers in the huge capitalist production process and was the opposite of human contradictions. Moby Dick's power is unfathomable and people can't guess. Through the description of Moby Dick, the author reflects the powerful and uncontrollable capitalist forces in the society at that time, as well as his inner fear and anxiety. At the same time, he also reflects his anxiety about the fate of mankind in this changing era and his deep concern for the human situation.
Finally, Moby Dick symbolizes the mysterious and invincible power of nature. Mobidick is so powerful that it can manipulate people's lives at will. One roll is enough to sink a ship. The white color of the beluga whale is also symbolic. It symbolizes the innocence of humanity and nature. To oppose Moby Dick is to oppose nature and fate, and the result is bound to be extinction. Man is small in front of nature and can never overcome the power of nature. However, Captain Ahab's desperate revenge on Moby Dick means that people destroy nature without restraint: deforestation and indiscriminate killing of animals. Although people can gain immediate benefits and conquer nature for a while, if they go on for a long time, they will only die and be rewarded by nature, just like Captain Ahab. People should be kind to nature and obey its laws in order to live in harmony with nature.
Fourth, the symbolic significance of Captain Ahab.
Captain Ahab's symbolic meaning is extremely rich. His name comes from an unscrupulous Israeli monarch in the Bible. His name symbolizes evil, violence and hatred. He was selfish and arrogant, self-centered, regardless of the crew's feelings, and went his own way, forcing the crew to kill Mobidick, regardless of the crew's life and death. From this perspective, he is a symbol of selfishness, paranoia, cold-blooded, violence and evil. His conflict with Moby Dick symbolizes the conflict between human beings and nature. His revenge on Moby Dick symbolizes the destruction of nature by human beings. Moby Dick finally resisted, and the death of Ahab and his crew almost symbolized nature's revenge on mankind.
We also see another quality of Captain Ahab. He is tenacious, dare to confront evil, dare to challenge fate and dare to fight against all dark forces. This quality of him is the real hero. In the process of fighting Moby Dick, he bravely marched forward, but at the same time he failed, because he ignored the laws of nature and became a victim of nature. Ahab is a man with both good and evil, beauty and ugliness.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) The symbolic meaning of the whaling ship "Pequod"
Pequod is the name of a race of American Indians, and it is the name of a race that was wiped out after being colonized by white Americans. The name Pecould itself heralds death. The voyage of the Pequod symbolizes the long journey of mankind. The whaling ship Pequod is actually a microcosm of the world. Captain Ahab and the crew from all directions get together and sail together on the Pequod, which actually means that people of different colors and races get together in the same world, live together and struggle together. The Pequod is a small world. This ship embodies the wisdom and strength of human beings. People share weal and woe, tide over difficulties together and form a profound friendship. Just like the crew shouted, "Let's pinch together; Let's melt ourselves together in this creamy friendship. "
Conclusion of intransitive verbs
Moby Dick is a novel with rich social and artistic connotations. Melville, the author, combined with the current social situation, used symbolism in many places to truly and vividly describe the life of North American fishery whalers in the19th century, and described the process of hunting Moby Dick in a comprehensive and delicate way. On the whole, this novel is profound and unforgettable.
In the 1970s, an English woman boarded a ship anchored in Samoa. She said to the captain, "I bought some books for you and your crew, three of which are works by American writer Melville." It is called Moby Dick, which is the strangest, wildest and saddest story I have ever read. " A crew member recalled that the captain read the book to the crew from beginning to end. "Although he stopped to talk about some metaphysical things from time to time while reading, we forgave him because we knew that he was as obsessed with the crazy captain Ahab, the brave first mate Stabuk and other ill-fated crew members as we were." Jeffrey sanborn
The value of herman melville
Herman melville,/kloc-one of the greatest American novelists and poets in the 9th century, is known as "American Shakespeare".
Moby Dick was published in 185 1, with mixed reviews. In the 1970s, Melville was still unknown, and it was not until the 1920s that people became enthusiastic about his works. In an era when Moby Dick has not yet become a classic, it has not been widely worshipped or even feared today, but is just the strangest, wildest and saddest story in the minds of ordinary readers. It has touched a boatload of people with its unique literary and philosophical style. This may explain Moby Dick's literary power better than any explanation of its cultural connotation.
Nowadays Moby Dick occupies all kinds of books related to American literature all the year round, but Melville's popularity in China is not as good as that of other contemporary American writers (such as Hawthorne, Poe, Mark Twain, etc. On the one hand, Melville's writing style is not easy to read. Even in the United States, many students majoring in literature are far away from him but distant. Moby Dick's writing style is quite unique, and the narrative often digress, even interspersed with a chapter to discuss the size of whale skulls, while the next chapter talks about the writer's choice of themes from whale fossils. On the other hand, Moby Dick's story itself is ambiguous. The religious ideas in this book, the metaphors based on Christian beliefs, and the battle between Captain Ahab and whales all have a lot of room for interpretation, making reading a journey of challenging intelligence. So for ordinary readers, what is the symbolic significance of the whale in Moby Dick, and what is the significance of reading Moby Dick?
Moby Dick, People's Literature Publishing House, June 20 17.
Moby Dick's plot is not complicated. The narrator Ishmael, a sailor, came to a seaside town to look for a chance to go to sea, and met Queequeg, an eccentric whaler who was a "barbarian" at that time. Although Ishmael was full of fear at first, after getting along with him for a period of time, he found that he could tolerate Ji Kuige's pagan beliefs and Ji Kuige was kind. They established a friendship and became the signing crew of a whaling ship "Pecoud" together. "Pigood" looks strange, decorated with the teeth of hunted whales. Captain Ahab is even weirder. In a fight with the Moby Dick, the Moby Dick bit off one of his legs. He vowed to kill the whale and regarded it as a symbol of evil in the world. After boarding the ship, Ishmael found that Ahab had brought his own whaling team aboard without telling his whaling partners, including a Zoroastrian with prophetic ability. He predicted that Ehab would die of rope, and before he died, he would see two coffins. One was not made by hand, and the other was made of wood from America. Starbuck, the first mate, repeatedly persuaded Ahab to give up his revenge on Moby Dick. Ahab knew that fighting Moby Dick was extremely dangerous, but he insisted on revenge almost crazily. Most of the book revolves around the voyage of Pigou, ending with the final battle between Ehab and Moby Dick: the prophecy of "two coffins" was symbolically realized, Ehab was strangled by a whale rope, Moby Dick stirred up a huge whirlpool, and the ship sank in the whirlpool, only Ishmael survived. At sea, he met the coffin prepared by the crew for Ji Kui, who had been seriously ill once. The coffin became his lifeboat until he was rescued by another ship.
Readers of Moby Dick may wonder what the whale symbolizes in the book and how to understand Captain Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick. The mission of chasing whales has become a part of captain Ehab's existence. For him, this is the meaning of his existence. In the last chase, the whale collided with the whaling ship, and the crew staggered like planks on the ship, listening helplessly to the influx of seawater from the cracks. Captain Ehab witnessed the whole ship become the second coffin predicted, lamented life and death, and declared war on whales. This passage also became his last words-he threw a spear tied with a whale rope, which was the rope that strangled him:
Ah, live alone, and then die alone! Ah, now I think my unparalleled greatness lies in my unparalleled sadness. Ho ho. Wave after wave of brave waves symbolizing my previous life, the last wave that sent me to death, is surging from your extreme distance! I aim at you, a whale that can only destroy but not conquer everything, and I want to compete with you to the end; I stabbed you from the depths of hell, and I took my last breath to vent my hatred for you. (Shi Cheng/translated, People's Literature Publishing House, 20 17 edition)
Captain Ahab was brave and crazy, but the whale was beyond his control. He decided to stick to it at every node that he could give up. This persistence is not the result of rational thinking, but something similar to instinct. At the beginning of this chapter, Habu waited for the whale to appear again. He looked at the wonderful weather and thought that even if the world was rebuilt and turned into the summer palace of angels, there could not be a better morning. He said it was probably something worth thinking about, but he never thought about it, just by feeling. Feeling brings enough stimulation to mortals, but thinking has great courage, and only God has this privilege. He thought his hair was as long as weeds, and it is still growing at this moment. He thought of the trade winds at sea, and he said that there was something bright and kind in the wind-it was these trade winds, or something as powerful and hard to change as them, that blew away his overturned soul all the way. Is this kind of thing fate? To what extent does Ahab's fate come from his self-awareness and his heart?
In the story of Jonah and big fish (some versions are whales) in the Old Testament, God arranged Jonah to take Nineveh to warn the local people of God's anger. Jonah didn't want to follow this instruction, so he boarded a ship to another place. The ship was caught in a storm, and Jonah asked the crew to throw him overboard, so the storm subsided. The book of Jonah was swallowed by a big fish. God didn't let the big fish spit it out until he promised to go to Nineveh and prophesy that the city would collapse. God told Jonah that he cared about Nineveh and Nineveh people in the chaos. In Moby Dick's story, there is no faith and ultimate value to explain the bravery and futility in the struggle against whales. Ehab didn't listen to Starbuck's dissuasion and chose to fight the whale to the death. His choice also made almost all the people on board buried with him, casting a shadow over the color of the hero.
Some scholars say that whales symbolize the world. At first glance, it looks calm and abnormal, but in fact it has become very dangerous, hindering people's free will, and it is so powerful that people can't beat it. Furthermore, Ehab can be regarded as the external expression of Melville's "self" who feels sad and angry about the world. In the reader's mind, there is such a captain Ahab who has experienced the despair brought by his existence in this world. This interpretation certainly accords with the powerful and unchangeable side of the whale, but it also ignores the other side of the story: Ehab took the initiative to seek revenge against Moby Dick, but the whale did not take the initiative to attack him or try to bring him destruction. Besides, if Ahab didn't take whaling as his profession, he wouldn't have met Moby Dick. Before the final chase, Moby Dick swam forward. Stubbuk pointed out that he didn't want to win or lose with Ehab, but Ehab was frantically settling accounts with him. The whale angered by Ehab and his harpoon showed a ferocious and uncontrollable side. It can be said that whales symbolize an unchangeable fate and a world that hinders people's free will to some extent, but we also need to see that in Moby Dick, people's fate is not predetermined by "God" or purely objective factors, but someone participates. People choose to fight whales, the environment, the world and so on, so they need to take responsibility for this choice. For the crew of "Pigood", it is not only the powerful Moby Dick that determines their fate, but also the paranoia of Ehab, and even the strong dictatorship in the decision-making process of the whaling ship. The combination of various factors leads to the terrible consequences of individual choice for the group. Perhaps the significance and value of Moby Dick to ordinary readers lies in that it shows a complex and multidimensional picture of the interaction between man and reality, rather than simplification.