Post Three: Moby Dick

One thing that because more and more apparent to me as the novel progressed was that Melville definitely read a bunch of Shakespeare before writing this novel. 

              In the chapter, “Sunset,” Ahab has a stirring soliloquy.  It first starts out with stage directions that establish the setting like in a play.  Then it is essentially a beautiful poem.  No one in the story so far speaks like this and there is no way that Ishmael could have heard this so this exit from reality is an interesting twist in the narrative.  But it also does a great job strengthening Ahab’s character.  Revealing in even greater detail his dedication and obsession to, “dismember my dismemberer.(143)”  If I was to ponder a reason for Melville doing this, it would be because it lifts Ahab onto a plateau beyond a normal character.  It simultaneously digs deeper into his character, but also allows him to speak and think on this much higher level of ability.

            It maybe not exactly a soliloquy, but the speech that Stubb gives after they hit the water to go after the first whale of the voyage made me think only of Shakespeare.  He takes no breaks in what he says, and neither does the writing shift its focus on anything else other than when he pulls his knife out and threatens to place it in their mouth like a horses bridle.  It is just him talking and inspiring the men on his boat.  And it is inspiring indeed.  The language he uses and the way he uses it brings the Bard of Avon to mind.  “Ragamuffin rapscallions,(182)” was a particular phrase that stuck out to me.  And the before mentioned threat of shoving a knife in the rowers mouth is very creative.  But his focus on the pulling and the biting throughout is fantastically raw and captivating while maintaining this beauty of how it is spoke, something that I always have attributed to Shakespeare.