This chapter is also very funny, blasphemously likening the whale's organ
to the dress of clergymen because it has some pagan mysticism attached to
it. It serves an actual purpose on the ship: the mincer wears the black
"pelt" of skin from the penis to protect himself while he slices the horse-
pieces of blubber for the pots.
Ishmael then tries to explain the try-works, heavy structures made of pots
and furnaces that boil the blubber and derive all the oil from it. He
associates the try-works with darkness and a sense of exotic evil: it has
"an unspeakable, wild, Hindoo odor about it, such as may lurk in the
vicinity of funereal pyres." Furthermore, the pagan harpooneers tend it.
Ishmael also associates it with the red fires of Hell that, in combination
with the black sea and the dark night, so disorient him that he loses sense
of himself at the tiller. Everything becomes "inverted," he says, and
suddenly there is "no compass before me to steer by."
In a very short chapter, Ishmael describes in The Lamp how whalemen are
always in the light because their job is to collect oil from the seas. He
then finishes describing how whale's oil is processed: putting the oil in
casks and cleaning up the ship. Here he dismisses another myth about
whaling: whalers are not dirty. Sperm whale's oil is a fine cleaning agent.
But Ishmael admits that whalers are hardly clean for a day when the next
whale is sighted and the cycle begins again.
Ishmael returns to talking about the characters again, showing the
reactions of Ahab, Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, the Manxman, Queequeg, Fedallah,
and Pip to the golden coin fixed on the mainmast. Ahab looks at the
doubloon from Ecuador and sees himself and the pains of man. Starbuck sees
some Biblical significance about how man can find little solace in times of
trouble. Stubb, first saying he wants to spend it, looks deeper at the
doubloon because he saw his two superiors gazing meaningfully at it. He can
find little but some funny dancing zodiac signs. Then Flask approaches, and
says he sees "nothing here, round thing made of gold and whoever raises a
certain whale, this round thing belongs to him. So what's all this staring
been about?" Pip is the last to look at the coin and says, prophetically,
that here's the ship's "navel"{ something at the center of the ship,
holding it together.
Then the Pequod meets the Samuel Enderby, a whaling ship from London with a
jolly captain and crew. The first thing Ahab asks, of course, is if they
have seen Moby Dick. The captain, named Boomer, has, and is missing an arm
because of it. The story is pretty gory, but Boomer does not dwell too much
on the horrible details, choosing instead to talk about the hot rum toddies
he drank during his recovery. The ship encountered the white whale again
but did not want to try to fasten to it. Although the people on board the
Enderby think he is crazy, Ahab insists on knowing which way the whale went
and returns to his ship to pursue it.
In the next chapter, Ishmael backtracks, to explain why the name Enderby is
significant: this man fitted the first ever English sperm whaling ship.
Ishmael then exuberantly explains the history behind Enderby's before
telling the story of the particular whaler Samuel Enderby. The good food
aboard the Enderby earns the ship the title "Decanter."
Chapter 102-114
Summary
Ishmael now tries another tactic for interpreting the whale. In the chapter
called A Bower in the Arsacides, he discusses how he learned to measure a
whale's bones. When he was visiting his friend Tranquo, king of Tranque, he
lived in a culture in which the whale skeleton was sacred. After telling
how he learned to measure, he goes on to tell the results of the
measurements. He begins with the skull, the biggest part, then the ribs,
and the spine. But these bones, he cautions, give only a partial picture of
the whale since so much esh is wrapped around them. A person cannot still
find good representation of a whale in its entirety.
And Ishmael continues to "manhandle" the whale, self- consciously saying
that he does the best he knows how. So he decides to look at the Fossil
Whale from an "archaeological, fossiliferous, and antediluvian point of
view." He can't be too grandiloquent with his exaggerated words and diction
because the whale itself is so grand. He ashes credentials again, this time
as a geologist and then discusses his finds. But, again, he is unsatisfied:
"the skeleton of the whale furnishes but little clue to the shape of his
fully invested body." But this chapter does give a sense of the whale's age
and his pedigree.
Ishmael finally gives up, in awe, deconstructing the whale- -now he wants
to know if such a fabulous monster will remain on the earth. Ishmael says
that though they may not travel in herds anymore, though they may have
changed haunting grounds, they remain. Why? Because they have established a
new home base at the poles, where man cannot penetrate; because they've
been hunted throughout history and still remain; because the whale
population is not in danger for survival since many generations of whales
are alive at the same time.
Ahab asks the carpenter to make him a new leg because the one he uses is
not trustworthy. After hitting it heavily on the boat's wooden oor when he
returned from the Enderby, he does not think it will keep holding. Indeed,
just before the Pequod sailed, Ahab had been found lying on the ground with
the whalebone leg gouging out his thigh. So the carpenter, the do-it-all
man on the ship, has to make Ahab a new prosthetic leg. They discuss the
feeling of a ghost leg. When Ahab leaves, the carpenter thinks he is a
little queer.
A sailor then informs Ahab, in front of Starbuck, that the oil casks are
leaking. The sailor suggests that they stop to fix them, but Ahab refuses
to stop, saying that he doesn't care about the owners or profft. Starbuck
objects and Ahab points a musket at him. Says Starbuck, "I ask thee not to
beware of Starbuck; thou wouldst but laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab;
beware of thyself, old man." In cleaning out the stowed oil casks, Queequeg
falls sick. Thinking he is going to die, Queequeg orders a coffn made. He
lies in it and closes the cover, as Pip dances around the coffn. Soon,
Queequeg feels well again and gets out. Ishmael attributes this to his
"savage" nature.
In The Pacific, Ishmael gets caught up in the meditative, serene Pacific
Ocean. At the end of the chapter, he comes back to Ahab, saying that no
such calming thoughts entered the brain of the captain. Ishmael then pans
over to the blacksmith whose life on land disintegrated. With
characteristic panache, Ishmael explains that the sea beckons to broken-
hearted men who long for death but cannot commit suicide. The Forge
dramatizes an exchange between the blacksmith and Ahab in which the captain
asks the blacksmith to make a special harpoon to kill the white whale.
Although Ahab gives the blacksmith directions, he takes over the crafting
of the harpoon himself, hammering the steel on the anvil and tempering it
with the blood of the three harpooneers (instead of water). The scene ends
with Pip's laughter.
In The Gilder, Ishmael considers how the dreaminess of the sea masks a
ferocity. He speaks of the sea as "gilt" because it looks golden in the sun-
set and is falsely calm. The sea even makes Starbuck rhapsodize, making an
apostrophe (direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a
personified abstraction, especially as a digression in the course of a
speech or composition) to the sea; Stubb answers him by surprise and, as
usual, makes light of the situation.
Chapters 115-125
These chapters show how badly off the Pequod really is. The somber Pequod,
still on the lookout for Moby Dick, runs into the Bachelor, a festive
Nantucket whaler on its way home with a full cargo. The captain of the
Bachelor, saying that he has only heard stories of the white whale and
doesn't believe them, invites Ahab and the crew to join his party. Ahab
declines. The next day, the Pequod kills several whales and the way that a
dying whale turns towards the sun spurs Ahab to speak out to it in wondrous
tones. While keeping a night vigil over a whale that was too far away to
take back to the ship immediately, Ahab hears from Fedallah the prophecy of
his death. Before Ahab can die, he must see two hearses, one "not made by
mortal hands" and one made of wood from America; and only hemp can kill the
captain. Back on the ship, Ahab holds up a quadrant, an instrument that
gauges the position of the sun, to determine the ship's latitude. Ahab
decides that it does not give him the orienteering information he wants and
tramples it underfoot. He orders the ship to change direction.
The next day, the Pequod is caught in a typhoon. The weird weather makes
white ames appear at the top of the three masts and Ahab refuses to let the
crew put up lightning rods to draw away the danger. While Ahab marvels at
the ship's three masts lit up like three spermaceti candles, hailing them
as good omens and signs of his own power, Starbuck sees them as a warning
against continuing the journey. When Starbuck sees Ahab's harpoon also
ickering with fire, he says that this is a sign that God is against Ahab.
Ahab, however, grasps the harpoon, and says, in front of a frightened crew,
there is nothing to fear in the enterprise that binds them all together. He
blows out the ame to "blow out the last fear. "In the next chapter,
Starbuck questions Ahab's judgment again{this time saying that they should
pull down the main-top-sail yard. Ahab says that they should just lash it
tighter, complaining that his first mate must think him incompetent. On the
bulwarks of the forecastle, Stubb and Flask are having their own
conversation about the storm and Ahab's behavior. Stubb basically dominates
the conversation and says that this journey is no more dangerous than any
other is even though it seems as if Ahab is putting them in extreme danger.
Suspended above them all on the main-top-sail yard, Tashtego says to
himself that sailors don't care that much about the storm, just rum. When
the storm finally dies down, Starbuck goes below to report to Ahab. On the
way to Ahab's cabin, he sees a row of muskets, including the very one that
Ahab had leveled at him earlier. Angry about Ahab's reckless and selfish
behavior, he talks to himself about whether he ought to kill his captain.
He decides he cannot kill Ahab in his sleep and goes up.
When Ahab is on deck the next day, he realizes that the storm has thrown
off the compasses. Ahab then pronounces himself "lord over the level
loadstone yet" and makes his own needle. Here Ishmael comments, "In this
fiery eyes of scorn and triumph, you then saw Ahab in all his fatal pride."
With all the other orienteering devices out of order, Ahab decides to pull
out the seldom-used log and line. Because of heat and moisture, the line
breaks and Ahab realizes that he now has none of his original orienteering
devices. He calls for Pip to help him and Pip answers with nonsense. Ahab,
touched by Pip's crazy speeches, says that his cabin will now be Pip's
because they boy "touchest [his] inmost center."
Chapters 126-132
Sailors are very superstitious. As the Pequod approaches the Equatorial
fishing ground, the sailors think that they hear ghosts wailing. The
Manxman (man from the Isle of Man) says that these are the voices of the
newly drowned men in the sea. Ahab says nonsense. When the Pequod's life-
buoy falls overboard and sinks, the sailors think it is a fulfillment of
evil that was foretold. The offcers decide to replace the life-buoy with
Queequeg's coffn.
Though the carpenter grumbles about having to transform the object, Ahab,
who is aware of the irony of the substitution, nevertheless calls the
carpenter "unprincipled as the gods" for going through with the
substitution.
The Pequod encounters the ship Rachel while it is looking for Moby Dick in
these waters. Captain Gardiner of the , after afirming that he has indeed
seen Moby Dick, climbs aboard Ahab's ship and begs Ahab to help him find
his son, whose whaleboat was lost in the chase after the white whale. Ahab
refuses. Now that Ahab knows that the white whale is near, he spends a lot
of time walking the decks. As Ahab goes up one time, Pip wants to follow
him. Ahab tells him to stay in the captain's cabin, lest Pip's insanity
start to cure his own just when he's getting close to the whale and needs
to be a little crazy.
And so Ahab, shadowed everywhere by Fedallah, remains on deck, ever
watchful. This continuous watch sharpens Ahab's obsession and he decides
that he must be the first to sight the whale. He asks Starbuck to help him
get up the main-mast head and watch his rope. When he is there, a black
hawk steals his hat; Ishmael this considers a bad omen. The Pequod then
runs into the miserably misnamed ship Delight. The Delight has indeed
encountered Moby Dick, but the result was a gutted whaleboat and dead men.
As the Pequod goes by, the Delight drops a corpse in the water and
sprinkles the Pequod's hull with a "ghostly baptism."
In the chapter called The Symphony, disparage parts come together for a
crescendo. The pressure finally gets to Ahab and he seems human here,
dropping a tear into the sea. He and Starbuck have a bonding moment as Ahab
sadly talks about his continual, tiring whaling. He calls himself a fool
and thinks himself pathetic. Starbuck suggests giving up the chase, but
Ahab wonders if he can stop because he feels pushed on by Fate. But as Ahab
is asking these grand questions, Starbuck steals away. When Ahab goes to
the other side of the deck to gaze into the water, Fedallah, too, is
looking over the rail.
Chapters 133-Epilogue
Ahab can sense by smell that Moby Dick is near. Climbing up to the main
royal-mast head, Ahab spots Moby Dick and earns himself the doubloon. All
the boats set off in chase of the whale. When Moby Dick finally surfaces,
he stoves Ahab's boat. The whale is swimming too fast away from them and
they all return to the ship.
Saying that persistent pursuit of one whale has historically happened
before, Ishmael comments that Ahab still desperately wants to chase Moby
Dick though he has lost one boat. They do sight Moby Dick again and the
crewmen, growing increasingly in awe of Ahab and caught up in the thrill of
the chase, lower three boats. Starbuck stays to mind the Pequod. Ahab tries
to attack Moby Dick head on this time, but again, Moby Dick is triumphant.
He stoves Ahab's ship and breaks his false leg. When they return to the
Pequod, Ahab finds out that Fedallah is gone, dragged down by Ahab's own
line. Starbuck tells him to stop, but Ahab, convinced that he is only the
"Fate's lieutenant," says he must keep pursuing the whale.
. Still on the look out, the crew spots the white whale for a third time
but sees nothing until Ahab realizes, "Aye, he's chasing me now; not I,
him{ that's bad." They turn the ship around completely and Ahab mounts the
masthead himself. He sights the spout and lowers again. As he gets into his
boat and leaves Starbuck in charge, the two men exchange a poignant moment
in which Ahab asks to shake hands with his first made and the first mate
tries to tell him not to go. Dangerously, sharks bite at the oars as the
boats pull away.
Starbuck, in a monologue, laments Ahab's sure doom. On the water, Ahab sees
Moby Dick breach. Seeing Fedallah strapped to the whale by turns of rope,
Ahab realizes that this is the first hearse that the Parsee had forecasted.
The whale goes down again and Ahab rows close to the ship. He tells
Tashtego to find another ag and nail it to the main masthead. The boats
soon see the white whale again and go after him. But Moby Dick only turns
around, and heads for the Pequod at full speed. He smashes the ship.
It goes down without its captain. The ship, Ahab realizes, is the second
hearse. Impassioned, Ahab is now determined to strike at Moby Dick with all
of his power: "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 coffns 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!" After darting the whale, Ahab is caught
around the neck by the ying line. He is dragged under the sea. Tashtego,
meanwhile, is still trying to nail the ag to the ship's spar as it goes
down. He catches a sky-hawk in mid-hammer and the screaming bird, folded in
the ag, goes down with everything else.
In the Epilogue, Ishmael wraps up the story, saying that he is the only one
who survives the wreck. All the boats and ship were ruined. Ishmael
survives only because Queequeg's coffn bobs up and becomes his life buoy. A
day after the wreck, the Rachel, still cruising for her first lost son,
saves Ishmael.
The Scarlet Letter
Introduction-Chapter 1
Introduction: The first forty-four pages written by the author tell about
his life working at the Custom House in Salem Massachusetts. During his
time of employment there, he discovers some records in the attic and begins
to piece together the story of Hester Prynne, an adulterous man in Puritan
Salem. The Scarlet Letter is his account of the story with as many facts
as he, the author, was able to gather from the documents he found.
Chapter 1: Hawthorn’s first chapter is short, detailing the set up of
colonial Salem. He talks of the town and how essential prisons and
cemeteries are in the organization. Next to the steps of the Salem prison
is a rosebush that has survived centuries and Hawthorn says this bush gives
comfort with it’s beauty to the people who enter and leave the
establishment.
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