One theme that Melville first introduced in the first chapter (Loomings) that he continues to stress is duality, or the idea of two polar extremes existing within one thing. The first instance of that is when Ishmael is talking about water, and its ability to both attract and destroy those who it attracts. Additionally many of the characters are introduced in polar pairs. Bildad and Peleg appear first as a sort of good cop/ bad cop routine, with Bildad as the stern, religious, taskmaster, and Peleg as the more carefree, (74), blustering man. Even Queequeg and Ishmael are a sort of polar pair. Although they are both, in their own ways, loners, Ishmael is a depressed New England misanthrope and Queequeg is an imperturbable Polynesian pagan. Another symbol of this duality is Queequegs dual-purpose tomahawk pipe which “both brained his foes and soothed his soul” (92). This description of the tomahawk pipe can also be easily applied to Ishmael’s relationship to the sea.
The issue of Queequeg’s pipe brings up the symbol of pipes in general which Melville uses all the time. First, we have said tomahawk pipe, which represents this soothing/ hurting duality also symbolized by the sea. Next, Melville talks about Stubb’s pipe, which “helped to bring about that almost impious good humor of his” (105). Melville writes that, since the pure air is tinged with the breath of the dead, “against all mortal tribulations, Stubb’s tobacco smoke might have operated as a sort of disinfecting agent.” (105) In this case, the pipe symbolizes a sort of barrier between the realism of mortality, and Stubb’s happy-go-lucky attitude, and explains how he can maintain this attitude in the face of such grim prospects. The third pipe that Melville highlights as significant is Ahab’s pipe. In a whole chapter called “The Pipe,” Melville describes Ahab’s realization that he no longer wants to smoke, culminating in his throwing his pipe overboard (112-113). For Ahab, the pipes “mild white vapors” reflect his own mortality, and serve as a means of distress, not pleasure. Ahab, is obviously struggling with his mortality—he sleeps very little because he believes “the longer linked with life, the less man has to do with aught that looks like death” (110).
Another aspect of the reading I found interesting was the note that described Melville’s goal of writing a Greek tragedy even in American—such an upwardly mobile capitalist country with no royalty. After this note, I started noticing all the comparisons between Ahab and a king, a favorite subject of Shakespeare. On page 78, Peleg refers to Ahab as a “crowned king,” and Melville on 113 refers to Ahab as “a king of the sea”. Additionally, Stubb’s surreal, Lynchean dream makes him conclude that he should always obey Ahab, creating sort of a monarchistic hierarchy within the ship.
I’ll end with two quotes I found which shed light on some topics of discussion that have been raised both in class and in several response journals. The first, on page 79, illustrates Melville’s distaste for organized religion:
“Heaven have mercy on us all—Presbyterians and Pagans alike—for we are all somehow dreadfully cracked about the head, and sadly need mending” (82) (68)
Secondly, illustrating Ishmael’s permeating sense of fatalism:
“Such is the endlessness, yea, the intolerableness of all earthly effort.” (62)
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