Ah, God! what trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved
    revengeful desire.
           -Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Perhaps no other great book suffers to the degree that Melville's classic does from the tendency to abridge the Great Books for easy consumption by High School students.  Sure, when you read it, in 10th grade or whenever, you get that essential tale of Ahab's monomaniacal pursuit of the White Whale, but you don't get much of the fascinating detail of the whaling industry nor much of the symbolism that makes the book one that rewards repeated readings.

In fact, Melville's fiction is so densely packed with symbolism and allusions that it's sometimes hard to believe that he has any central message.  This is particularly noticeable in the great short story Bartleby, the Scrivener.  One finishes the story with no idea whatsoever why Bartleby has stopped working and given up on life, but the story is so open that you can give it any number of meanings and argue them all plausibly.  Moby Dick is similarly amenable to many different interpretations.  After initially being understood as a tale of the struggle against evil, it is now taken, mainly in the academy, to be an indictment of capitalism and industrialization.

Personally, I like to think of it as a joyous answer to the dour Existentialists, with their insistence that life is meaningless drudgery.  It is a curious thing that we should so admire men like Ahab, clearly grown demented in his pursuit of Moby Dick, or even a character like Don Quixote, whose immersion in the fiction of chivalry has obviously left him brain-addled.  What is it we find so compelling in such figures ?  I think it is their unalterable sense of purpose, however deranged.  What after all is Existentialism but an expression of the desire that they too were guided by such a singular vision of the purpose of life ?

    Look not too long in the face of the fire, O man! Never dream with thy hand on the helm! Turn not
    thy back on the compass.

    Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee;
    from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all
    hearses to one common pool and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still
    chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!

We easily recognize that this is not the vow of a well man, but it's awfully hard not to get caught up in the passion, and the absolute conviction, that he evinces.  To me it suggests that any man's life can be made heroic by his devotion to a noble purpose; though, as the tragedy that ensues makes clear, this devotion is best tempered by some sense of perspective.

In the end, perhaps what Melville is best at isn't conveying a conventional moral or a message; perhaps what he does best is to tangle the reader up in the psychological mood of his central characters.  Though the novel incorporates many classic themes--particularly the Biblical themes of crucifixion and resurrection and the great American theme of men fleeing the suffocation of civilization--it is truly unique.  If you haven't read it since you were a teen, give it another try now; you'll be surprised at the complex and multi-layered tale you'll find in these pages.

(Reviewed:10-Apr-01)

Grade: (A) Orrin C. Judd

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