Herman Melville

But it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.

(1819-1891)

Teaching Objectives

1) Melville’s Life and Main Works

2) Melville’s masterpiece Moby Dick

3) The Main Plot, Major characters, theme, Symbols

4) Social significance of Moby Dick

Life Experience born on August 1, 1819 in New York City into an est

ablished merchant family, the third of 8 children. His father became bankrupt and insane, dying when Melville was 12.

His sea experiences and adventures furnished him with abundant materials, and resulted in five novels that brought him wide fame as a writer of sea stories.

In 1850, he met Hawthorne and they became good friends. He read Hawthorne’s books and was deeply impressed by Hawthorne’s black vision.

His fame was recognized after his death.

Melville’s Major Works

1) Typee « 泰皮 » 2) Omoo « 欧穆 » 3) Mardi « 玛地 » 4) Bedburn « 雷得本 » 5) White Jacket « 白外衣 »

from his adventures among the people of the South Pacific islands

an account of his voyage to England

his life on a United States man-of-war

Melville’s Major Works

6) Pierre « 皮埃尔 » 7) Billy Budd 《比利•巴德》 (a sign that

he had resolved his quarrel with God) Clarel 《克拉莱尔》 ( a poem)

Melville’s Major Works

Moby-Dick « 白鲸 » ， « 莫比•狄克 »

an encyclopedia of everything history,

philosophy, religion, the whaling industry

a Shakespearean tragedy of man fighting against fates

His Tragic Influence from Literary Tradition

At the time of writing, Melville was

reading Greek tragedy, especially the Orestia ( 奥瑞斯提亚） of Aeschylus

Immersed in the tragedies of Shakespeare – King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth

Epic poetry, Homer

Moby Dick (1)

This book is dedicated to Hawthorne, for Hawthorne encourged Melville to change this novel from a story full of details about whaling, into an allegorical novel.

Moby Dick (2)

Epic in scope. It consists of 135 chapters. - the long and arduous journey

- the great battle Defined as an epic, which contains a tragic dr

ama, a tragedy of pride, and pursuit and revenge, which is also a tragedy of thought

与白鲸有关的背景 对爱斯基摩人来说，白鲸也是非常重要的，不仅因

为其肉好吃，而且它们的油用来点灯不仅明亮，还能释放出大量热量，使简陋的冰屋保持温暖。除此之外，白鲸的皮也很有用，还有一种香味，可以制成各种装饰品。

然而，不幸的是，自从 17 世纪以来，由于捕鲸的高额利润，捕鲸者对白鲸进行了疯狂的捕杀，致使白鲸数量锐减。更加可悲的是白鲸的生态环境遭到毁灭性的破坏，一批批白鲸相继死亡

Discussion Questions

What do you think of “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” ? Will you be revengeful when you are hurt by the evil power?

Should human beings conquer nature or yield before nature? What’s your opinion on nature?

Characters Ishmael: The name has come to symbolize orphans,

exiles, and social outcasts (in Genesis)----the son of Abraham and the slave girl Hagar

Elijah:The character Elijah (named for the Biblical prophet, Elijah

Ahab:Ahab is the tyrannical captain of the Pequod who is driven by a monomaniacal desire to kill Moby Dick,

Mates: Starbuck, Stubb. Flask. The three mates of the Pequod are all from New England

Harpooners: Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo, Fedallah (from different countries in the world)

Introduction to Ishmael

The narrator of the story (knowledgeable, intelligent), digression from art, geology, anatomy, to legal codes, and lit

erature ---- Jack of all trades A whaling ship “is my Yale College and Harvard” His intention in the ship journey: out of some spiritual ma

laise ( 精神的抑郁） Additionally, Ishmael represents the contradiction betwee

n the story and its setting. (suitable but fictional)

Learned person & working-class men (less-educated and even rough)

Ahab The Peqod’s obsessed captain, represents both an ancie

nt and a modern type of hero. Like the heroes of Greek or Shakespearean tragedy, Ahab suffers from a single fatal flaw ( 致命性的缺陷 ). ----overconfidence

According to the critic M. H. Abrams, such a tragic hero “move us to pity because, since he is not an evil person, his misfortune is greater than he deserves; but he moves us also to fear, because we recognize similar possibilities of error in our own lesser and fallible selves.”

这样一个悲剧英雄人物让我们为之感动，因为他不是一个恶人，他的不幸超过了他所得到的；但是他也让我们感到恐惧，因为我们认识到，尽管我们渺小，易于犯错误，但也会有可能铸成如此大错。

Moby Dick

Moby Dick is not a character, as the reader has no access to the white whale’s thoughts, feelings, or intentions.

Instead, moby dick is an impersonal force, one that many critics have interpreted as an allegorical representation of God, an inscrutable and all-powerful being that humankind can neither understand nor defy.

Symbols in Moby Dick

The Pequod Moby Dick （ Is Moby Dick evil or goo

d?)

The Pequod

a symbol of doom ( 注定要死亡的象征）The Pequod is the microcosom of human society and the voyage becomes a search for truth.

named after a Native American tribe in Massachusetts

did not long survive the arrival of white men (extincted)

is painted gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones

like a primitive coffin

Moby Dick

is hidden all the time

mirrors its enviorment

unknown and unknowable truths

only the surface of the ocean is available for human observation and interpretation

the depths conceal unknown truths

a metaphor for the human relationship with the Christain God: God is unkown and cannot be pinned down

inscrutable, mysterious

For the character Ahab, however, the whale only represents evil.

For Melville and Ishmael--the narrator, Moby Dick is still a mystery, an ultimate mystery of the universe, inscrutable and ambivalent.

So, the symbolic meanings of Moby Dick are ambiguous. It is the symbol of both holy and evil things.

Themes of Moby Dick

themes

futility and meaninglessness of existence 存在的徒劳无益与无意义alienation

loneliness and suicidal individualism rejection and quest

Themes of Moby Dick

1) Melville‘s bleak view (negative attitude): the sense of futility ( 徒劳无益） and meaninglessness of the world.

Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile. Man cannot overcome nature. Once he attempts to seek power over it he is doomed.

Themes of Moby Dick

the adventure of killing Moby Dick is meaningless.

Ahab tries to control it, which leads to his doom.

the embodim

ent of nature

modern life

the loss of faith, the sense of futility

well expressed in Moby Dick

Themes of Moby Dick

2) alienation (far away from each other) exists between man and man, man and

society, and man and nature.

Ahab cuts himself off from his family, stays away from his crew, hates Moby Dick and becomes a devil rushing to his doom.

Themes of Moby Dick

3) loneliness and suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death)

the basic pattern of nineteenth-century American life

4 ） rejection and questVoyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and values.

Writing style

(1) His works are symbolic and metaphorical.

voyage- "search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience."

the Pequod -the ship of the American soul

Moby Dick---a symbol of

its whiteness--- paradoxical color

evil

goodnessboth

death and corruption

purity, innocence, and youth

Writing style

(2) He manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.

Moby Dick is portrayed for the reader from different angles. The author is unwilling to commit himself, and the reader is thrown upon himself for judgment.

Writing style

（ 3 ） narrative point of view:

a. Ishmael is the narrator (as a learned person, the only people who survived the adventure).

b. dramatic monologues and soliloquies of Ahab and other characters.

Social Significance

Harmonious view between Man and Man, Man and Nature,man and God.

Respect the nature’s law, otherwise human beings will got punished by nature

Nature is of good will, man’s activities corrupt it.

Homework Preview Whitman’s “O, Captain, My Captain” Try to learn about the social backgrounds of Am

erican Realism