Key Facts
full title · Moby-Dick; or The Whale
author · Herman Melville
type of work · Novel
genre · Epic, adventure story, quest tale, allegory, tragedy
language · English
time and place written · Between 1850 and 1851,
in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and
New York City
date of first publication · 1851
publisher · Harper & Brothers in America (simultaneously published
in England by Richard Bentley as The Whale)
narrator · Ishmael, a junior member of the Pequod's
crew, casts himself as the author, recounting the events of the
voyage after he has acquired more experience and studied the whale
extensively.
point of view · Ishmael narrates in a combination of first and third
person, describing events as he saw them and providing his own thoughts.
He presents the thoughts and feelings of the other characters only
as an outside observer might infer them.
tone · Ironic, celebratory, philosophical, dramatic, hyperbolic
tense · Past
setting (time) · 1830s or 1840s
setting (place) · Aboard the whaling ship the Pequod, in
the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans
major conflict · Ahab dedicates his ship and crew to destroying Moby
Dick, a white sperm whale, because he sees this whale as the living embodiment
of all that is evil and malignant in the universe. By ignoring the
physical dangers that this quest entails, setting himself against
other men, and presuming to understand and fight evil on a cosmic
scale, Ahab arrogantly defies the limitations imposed upon human
beings.
rising action · Ahab announces his quest to the other sailors and nails
the doubloon to the mast; the Pequod encounters
various ships with news and stories about Moby Dick
climax · In Chapter 132, “The Symphony,”
Ahab interrogates himself and his quest in front of Starbuck, and
realizes that he does not have the will to turn aside from his purpose.
falling action · The death of Ahab and the destruction of the Pequod by
Moby Dick; Ishmael, the only survivor of the Pequod's
sinking, floats on a coffin and is rescued by another whaling ship,
the Rachel.
themes · The limits of knowledge; the deceptiveness of fate;
the exploitative nature of whaling
motifs · Whiteness; surfaces and depths
symbols · The Pequod symbolizes doom; Moby Dick,
on an objective level, symbolizes humankind's inability to understand
the world; Queequeg's coffin symbolizes both life and death
foreshadowing · Foreshadowing in Moby-Dick is extensive
and inescapable: everything from the Pequod's ornamentation to the
behavior of schools of fish to the appearance of a giant squid is
read as an omen of the eventual catastrophic encounter with Moby
Dick.
