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Karen Ye
Jonathan Highfield
E101
11 Dec 2013
The Staged Struggle of Sexuality
Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick is a tale of a whaling captain’s monomaniac chase
woven through a conglomeration of tangents and discourses. While the novel is constructed
around the narrative of Captain Ahab’s failed revenge against the albino whale Moby Dick,
Ishmael, the narrator, frequently interjects with philosophical, religious, or informative tangents
such as the anatomy and behavior of whales, and procedures aboard the whaleship. Through the
broad, divergent pacing of the novel, Melville incorporates a plethora of his own political,
philosophical and religious commentary, enriching the simple story of a whale hunt into
something far greater. Melville accomplishes this partially through the roles, characterizations,
and relationships of the novel’s characters. Captain Ahab, captain of the whaleship Pequod, is an
enigmatic man single-mindedly driven to hunt down who he considers his mortal enemy, and the
mortal enemy of the world – Moby Dick. Moby Dick, a colossal, albino sperm whale, is a
seemingly self-aware malicious force who is an object of terror to many whalemen. Ahab’s first
mate Starbuck is a pious man who, as first mate, fails his duty to keep Ahab’s actions in line with
the shipowners’ expectations for the whaling voyage. Queequeg, one of the three pagan
harpooneers aboard the Pequod, shares a brotherly love with Ishmael, who slowly withdraws his
presence from the novel until he is only the voice of the narrator. As the narrative proceeds,
Ishmael’s philosophizing and discourses serve to enrich the tale of Ahab’s wild chase, including
Melville’s commentary on sexuality and the two opposing forces of masculinity and femininity.
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Through attributions of sexuality to characters, objects and imagery, Melville orchestrates a
power play between masculinity and femininity in order to convey his own reflections on the
relationship between the two seemingly opposing forces.
Through the characterization and relationship between hunter and hunted – Captain
Ahab and Moby Dick – Melville creates a struggle for domination between two masculine forces.
When Ahab is first described to Ishmael by Captain Peleg, Peleg declares that Ahab is “grand,
ungodly, god-like man” (Melville 78). Similarly, in Ishmael’s description of the tail of the sperm
whale, Ishmael bestows upon the tail an “attribute traditionally reserved for God” (Taylor 326) in
that if “annihilation” were to occur, “[the tail is] the thing to do it” (Melville 294). Furthermore,
in Ishmael’s musings about Moby Dick’s whiteness, he declares that the white whale was the
symbol of the “very veil of the Christian’s Deity; and yet … the intensifying agent in things the
most appalling to mankind” (Melville 165). Melville implies that Moby Dick is of a godlike yet
demonic nature, just as Ahab is described as an unholy yet godlike man. Fedallah is also
“described as both Ahab’s shadow and as the Devil himself” (Taylor 342), bestowing upon Ahab
demonic traits as well. Both Moby Dick and Ahab are described as overwhelmingly powerful;
because power is traditionally associated with masculinity, the two are thus both portrayed as
exceedingly masculine. When Ahab first emerges onto the deck, Ishmael also notes that Ahab’s
presence seemed “as unnecessary there as another mast” (Melville 110), implying Ahab’s lack of
connection with the crew despite his status as the captain of the Pequod. Furthermore, Ishmael
states that “secludedness and isolation” (Melville 307) is natural of aged sperm whales, such as
Moby Dick. The recurring trait in masculine characters of isolation and seclusion includes
isolation from home and thus maternal protection, and femininity. By characterizing both as
isolated and secluded, Melville thus removes all traces of femininity from Ahab and Moby Dick.
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When the two reached an encounter, Moby Dick “dismasted” (Melville 139) Ahab on his
previous voyage, rendering Ahab sexually impotent. Consequently, despite Ahab’s power over
others, Ahab does not have the power of self, as the power of self is “inseparable from sexual
potency” (Shulman 186). This loss of sexual potency and therefore power of self translates to a
loss in masculinity, which is then reflected in Ahab’s loss against Moby Dick in their final
encounters. Because Moby Dick still retains his sexual potency, he succeeds in dominating Ahab
and wrecking the Pequod. Through these power struggles between Ahab and Moby Dick,
Melville asserts the idea that sexual potency is paramount in the power of self and in masculine
nature.
Just as he portrays Ahab and Moby Dick as two masculine powers, Melville also
attributes femininity to Starbuck and the two shipowners Peleg and Bildad. Starbuck is initially
described as brave in the face of “ordinary irrational horrors of the world” but unable to
withstand “those more terrific, because more spiritual terrors, which sometimes might menace
you from the concentrating brow of an enraged and mighty man” (Melville 103). While Starbuck
is courageous as needed in the face of whaling, Melville hints at Starbuck’s ultimate failure to
stand up to Ahab, revealing Starbuck’s lack of power despite his position as first mate. Because
of his lack of power, Starbuck is consequently shown as feminine. This notion is further enforced
when Ahab tells Starbuck to “stay on board” because Starbuck has a “wife and child” (Melville
406) waiting at home. Starbuck’s connection to domesticity and femininity through his familial
ties; conversely, Ahab declares that he “widowed” (Melville 405) his wife when he married her,
drawing a sharp contrast between the two. This contrast between Ahab, who is already
established as masculine, and Starbuck, reinforces Starbuck’s characterization as feminine.
Starbuck is also characterized as a “Quaker by descent” (Melville 101). Similarly, the two
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shipowners Peleg and Bildad are “native born [Quakers]” (Melville 74). Ishmael later declares
that the “soft, curled, hermaphroditical Italian pictures” in which Jesus Christ has been portrayed
are “destitute as they are of all brawniness, hint nothing of power” and instead portray “mere
negative, feminine… submission and endurance” (Melville 294). Jesus Christ is strongly
associated with femininity, which is “portrayed as negativity and lack of power” (Taylor 327);
because Quakers are expected to behave according to what Jesus has commanded, Starbuck,
Peleg and Bildad are shown to be following a feminine deity and are therefore characterized as
powerless and feminine as well. Furthermore, Peleg and Bildad are left in the “feminine
domesticity of the shore” when the Pequod departs for the “masculine adventurousness of the
blue sea” (Taylor 333). Because Peleg and Bildad remain ashore when the Pequod sets sail,
waiting for the ship to return to shore after its travels, the two mirror domestic women waiting
for the men to return from work. In this manner, Melville firmly stamps the shipowners with
femininity. Through the characterizations of Starbuck, Peleg and Bildad, Melville thus cements
the negative connotation of femininity to religion, domesticity and lack of power.
In contrast to the violent or imbalanced relationships between Ahab, Moby Dick,
Starbuck and the shipowners, Ishmael and Queequeg provide an example of what Melville
considers to be pure love. When Ishmael first encounters Queequeg,, Ishmael confesses that he
was “as much afraid of him as if it was the devil himself” (Melville 34). However, the next
morning Ishmael awakens to find Queequeg’s arm “thrown over [him] in the most loving an
affectionate manner” (Melville 36); the day after, the two go to bed in their “heart’s honeymoon”
as a “cosy, loving pair” (Melville 57). Despite their differences in both appearance and
philosophy, Ishmael and Queequeg easily unite in their “heart’s honeymoon”, almost as if they
are man and wife. Melville specifically brings together two polar opposite characters in order to
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illustrate his notion of what Melville considers to be pure love. Caleb Crain notes that
“Melville’s imagination involved itself richly and complexly with Plato’s” (9) and that Melville
“drew from Plato’s classic dialogues about the nature of love, death, truth, and the soul” (8).
Thus, Ishmael and Queequeg’s relationship is Melville’s interpretation of Plato’s ideas about
love. Plato asserted that a man who desired “intellect and every other excellence” would fall in
love with “a beautiful soul united with a handsome body”, and the two would form a friendship
“more firm” than “those who come together to have biological children” (Crain 9-10); in this
belief, men who “yearn according to the soul fall in love with men” (Crain 10). Through the
radical differences between Ishmael and Queequeg, Melville reflects upon the idea of yearning
for the soul in the development of Ishmael’s and Queequeg’s relationship. Even though
Queequeg is pagan and originally a cannibal, Ishmael nonetheless sees Queequeg as another man,
rather than what his tattooed appearance would ordinarily dictate. In this manner, Melville
demonstrates a relationship between men that highly contrasts the power dynamics involved in
the chase of Moby Dick.
Aside from major characters or relationships, the presence of pagan harpooneers as well
as the lack of women in Moby-Dick reflect a focus on sexuality but not lack of femininity in men.
Throughout the course of the novel, the only two women who speak, Aunt Charity and Mrs.
Hussey, “live ashore and are portrayed as efficient domestic workers” (Taylor 333). Otherwise,
women exist “on land and exist solely in relation to the men who observe them, or remember
them, or sing bawdy songs about them, or dream about them at night” (Taylor 333). The only
women “actually encountered at sea by the all-male crew of the Pequod” (Taylor 333) are the
Polynesian women who eloped with the crew of the Bachelor. Because of the lack of women in
in the narrative, the allure that women possess are thus “diverted” into the pagan harpooneers,
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reflected in Tashtego and Fedallah’s “long hair”, Daggoo’s “gold hoops”, and Queequeg’s body
is “adorned with tattoos that burn with ‘Satanic blue flames’” (Paglia 700). Camille Paglia also
adds that the “silent, solitary, and proudly self-complete” harpooneers have “stolen their dark
glittering glamour from repressed woman” (700). Melville has pushed the presence of women to
the smallest possible role by reducing them to minutely important domestic workers – the image
of femininity – or acknowledging their existence only in relation to men. However, the
diminished role of women has not diminished the presence of women’s sexuality, as shown by
the harpooneers who “stole” their “glamour” from women. Furthermore, the absence of women
enables Melville to focus on the struggle for power between femininity and masculinity in men,
rather than the struggle for power between women and men. Thus, Melville distorts the presence
of women in Moby-Dick in order to hone his focus on femininity and masculinity’s struggle for
dominance, rather than a struggle between sexes.
Inevitably, Melville’s attributions of femininity and masculinity lead to clashes between
the two forces. Melville uses these interactions to suppress the presence of femininity. For
example, when Queequeg and Ishmael’s boat is pulled into the center of the sperm whale herd,
Ishmael notes that it was as if the female and younger whales had become “suddenly
domesticated” (Melville 302). Furthermore, the boat witnesses the birthing of a whale cub and
see the “umbilical cord of Madame Leviathan” (Melville 303) as the newborn begins to float
toward the surface. Melville specifically describes the female and younger whales as appearing
domesticated in order to provoke an atmosphere of overwhelming femininity, reinforced by the
childbirth of a whale cub. Camille Paglia points out that whenever feminine traits are attributed
to whales, Melville “immediately cancels it by a masculine afterthought – of violence or rape”
(700). In order to suppress the femininity that he has created, Melville adds a brutal footnote that
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describes the “pouring milk and blood” that “rivallingly discolor the sea” (Melville 303) when
her breasts are cut by a lance. Furthermore, in the midst of this calm, feminine moment, an
injured male whale crashes through flailing a loose cutting-spade, carrying “dismay wherever he
went” (Melville 304). In this manner, Melville destroys the feminine atmosphere that he created,
asserting masculine dominance over femininity. This suppression of femininity also appears in
Ahab’s relationship with Starbuck. As first mate, Starbuck’s duty is to stop Ahab if Ahab is not
acting in accordance to the shipowners’ wishes; however, Starbuck is a pious man, frequently
telling Ahab that Ahab’s revenge is “blasphemous”(Melville 139) and against the will of God.
Later on, Starbuck tries to entice Ahab with the “bonds of parental care to abandon [Ahab’s]
hunt” (Taylor 336). However, both attempts fail, displaying Starbuck’s ineffectual performance
as first mate. Melville associates Starbuck’s piety, namely his belief in Jesus Christ, in
conjunction with his reliance on love, a feminine trait, in order to show the “ineffectual, feminine
nature of traditional Christian piety” (Taylor 342) in the face of Ahab the “ungodly, god-like
man” (Melville 78). This display of Ahab’s masculine power over Starbuck’s femininity reflects
the dominance of masculinity over femininity that Melville creates.
Through the personification of the Pequod and the surrounding environments, Melville
reinforces the idea of masculine dominance. When Ishmael at first describes the Pequod, he
notices how the ship’s bows look “bearded”, and her masts stand like the “spines of the three old
kings of Cologne” (Melville 69). Furthermore, he declares that the ship is “appareled like any
barbaric Ethiopian emperor” (Melville 69). By likening the whaleship to imagery of men,
Melville attributes the normally female ship with masculinity. Melville also describes land as the
home of “safety, comfort… [and] all that’s kind to our mortalities” , whereas in “landlessness
alone resides the highest truth, indefinite as God” (Melville 97). In this manner, Melville sets the
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land and the sea at odds, the land a place of femininity, comfort and domesticity while the sea
harbors the Pequod and its masculinity. In the brief epitaph of Bulkington, a powerful masculine
character, Ishmael declares that it would be better to “perish in [that] howling infinite” than to be
“ingloriously dashed” upon shore (Melville 97). Despite the risks of sailing out into the ocean
aboard a frequently imperiled ship such as the Pequod, Ishmael rejects the comforts of
femininity and instead chases rough, violent masculinity. In this manner, Melville once more
asserts dominance of masculinity over femininity. Melville even attributes femininity to the air,
personifying the first year’s spring weather as “red-cheeked, dancing girls” (Melville 110), and
the calm weather right before encountering Moby Dick as “transparently pure and soft, with a
woman’s look” (Melville 404) against the “robust and man-like sea” (Melville 404). In these
moments when the air is most explicitly given feminine traits, Ahab is described to be unmoved,
putting out only a “faint blossom of a look” which in any other man “would have soon flowered
out in a smile” (Melville 110) and declaring that “against all natural lovings and longings, [Ahab]
so [keeps] pushing” (Melville 406). Even in the tantalizing femininity of the air, Ahab, captain of
the masculine Pequod, rejects what the weather offers him, instead turning to the violent and
masculine sea in his chase of Moby Dick. Thus, through both Bulkington’s epitaph and Ahab’s
rejection of comfort, Melville emphasizes the dominance of masculinity over femininity.
Melville also uses the development and disintegration of Ahab and Pip’s relationship to
reject femininity. Following Pip’s descent into insanity, Ahab declares that Pip has “touched
[Ahab’s] inmost centre” and that Pip is “tied to [Ahab] by cords woven of [Ahab’s] heartstrings”
(Melville 392). When Ahab hears Pip’s ramblings and recognizes that Pip has been abandoned
by the heavens, Ahab empathizes with him and takes him, as if Pip is Ahab’s son. However,
when the Pequod encounters the Rachel and begs for help in locating a whaleboat in which the
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captain’s son is aboard, Ahab refuses to help, instead “hurriedly turning, with averted face”
(Melville 398) and disappears into his cabin. Soon after, Ahab abandons Pip, declaring that Pip
was curing the “malady [that becomes Ahab’s] most desired health”, and that further interaction
with Pip will cause “Ahab’s purpose [to keel up] in him” (Melville 398). At first, Ahab takes in
Pip because he feels that they are cut from the same cloth; however, Ahab recognizes that his
interaction with Pip, who is much like a son, is causing Ahab to regain his sanity. Because Ahab
wants to retain his madness and therefore his purpose in hunting down Moby Dick, Ahab
abandons Pip. Melville uses this formation and disintegration of Ahab and Pip’s relationship to
reflect upon the hindrance femininity is to masculinity. Pip, as a child resembling Ahab’s son
and therefore representing domesticity, saps away at Ahab’s masculinity by invoking emotions,
particularly those of love, which Ahab does not want. The encounter with the Rachel causes
Ahab to realize the imminent return of love if he is to continue interacting with Pip, and thus
decides to abandon Pip. Ahab’s choice to abandon his return to humanity, as represented by
Pip’s femininity, instead preferring his masculine madness, despite the ultimate destruction it
brings, reflects Melville’s desire to reject femininity at all costs. Thus, Melville utilizes this
crucial choice to reiterate the superiority of masculinity over femininity, no matter what the
consequences are.
Through references to relationships between men and women as well as men and men,
Melville rejects the idea of heterosexual love and thus rejects femininity. As mentioned above,
Ishmael and Queequeg’s relationship echoes Platonic ideas of loving the soul. Furthermore, Plato
declared that “men’s love for women” was “vulgar”, but man’s love “for male youths” was
“celestial” (Crain 10). The negative connotation of heterosexual love is noted by Melville in
Stubb’s thoughts about his wife. Stubb spends a brief moment wondering what his “juicy little
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pear” is doing at home, and concludes that she is probably “giving a party to the last arrived
harpooneers… [as] gay as a frigate’s pennant” (Melville 145). Stubb’s nonchalance about his
wife’s cheating reflects the vulgarity and impermanence of marriage, as does Ahab’s declaration
that his wife was “a widow with her husband alive” (Melville 405). Of the marriages mentioned
in the novel, only Starbuck’s marriage appears to be functional; however, as a feminine character,
the domestic nature of marriage only serves to reinforce Starbuck’s femininity. Conversely, the
failure of Stubb and Ahab’s marriages reflect the impotence of love between a man and a woman.
Plato theorizes that men who have a “yearning according to the body, turn themselves rather to
women” (Crain 9). By contrasting Ishmael and Queequeg’s harmonious homosexual relationship
to Ahab and Stubb’s botched marriages, Melville implies a rejection of marriage as a restrictive
and vulgar institution, instead favoring homoerotic relationships. This sentiment is echoed in
Ishmael’s discourses about social behavior of sperm whales. Ishmael describes schools of sperm
whales as either a “male of full grown magnitude” in “cavalier attendance” of his “concubines”
(Melville 305), or a school composing “none but young and vigorous males” (Melville 307). In
the case of the harem, Ishmael adds that the male leading the school leaves with the coming of
old age, preferring “secludedness and isolation” (Melville 307). Crain notes that Melville
occasionally hints that “the whale may belong to an order of being higher than the human” (12.
The idea that whales are superior to humans also implies superiority in social behavior;
consequently, Ishmael’s description of the schools of sperm whales as either harems in which the
male eventually abandons or all-male groups reflects Melville’s dismissal of marriage as a
worthwhile institution and a reinforcement of homosexual interactions. Through the contrast
between a successful homosexual relationship and failed marriages, and the social behavior of
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the sperm whales, Melville thus rejects marriage, a union of masculinity and femininity, and
asserts the superiority of homosexuality between men.
Despite what seems to be his crusade against femininity, Melville recognizes the faults in
a complete domination of masculinity. In one of his discourses involving whaling procedures,
Ishmael mentions that the “dark pelt” of the sperm whale’s penis is used to “adequately protect”
the mincer when chopping whale blubber into “bible leaves” (Melville 325). Ishmael describes
the mincer’s role as an “office” (Melville 325), implying the “public nature of the position”
(Dowling 42). Dowling adds that the mincer’s “penis cloak” represents the notion that public
office is “strictly a male activity” (Dowling 42). This direct representation of masculinity
holding positions of power reflects the idea that masculinity should hold dominance over
femininity; however, Melville also implies that complete domination would be destructive. In
order to convey this, Melville utilizes satiric phallic humor, such as Melville’s seemingly out-ofplace tangent about a criminal case involving a man who had “originally harpooned” a lady, but
upon his abandonment of her, another gentleman “re-harpooned” her, and the lady “became that
subsequent gentleman’s property, along with whatever harpoon might have been found sticking
in her” (Melville 309). While on the surface Melville’s tone is playful and humorous, the
likening of women to whales in regards to property rights hints at the masculine-natured business
and the public sphere interfering and tainting what would ordinarily be part of the feminine and
domestic sphere. Furthermore, the inappropriate presence of a phallic joke in the midst of the
topic of property rights reflects Melville’s “rankling at what… he presents as the hypocritical,
basically immoral code of the respectable community” (Shulman 182). The idea that property
belongs to the one who last takes it, in the context of the phallic joke, is “sanctioning a clear case
of adultery” (181). Melville uses this deliberately poorly placed innuendo to show the
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consequences of a complete domination of masculinity. If both the public and private spheres
were handled in masculine manners, cases such as property rights and adultery would be treated
in the same way, even though the implications are completely different. Therefore, Melville
implies that morals exist within the feminine sphere, and a complete suppression of femininity
would result in more poorly handled events such as the adultery case. In this manner, Melville
shows that while masculinity should hold dominance, femininity should not be completely
repressed.
Melville also uses phallic imagery to reflect a moral deficiency and violence in the
absence of femininity. As mentioned above, Moby Dick is given masculine attributes, but at the
climax of the novel, Melville goes even further and uses phallic imagery to describe the final
chase. On the first day, Moby Dick is described as “vertically thrusting his oblong white head up
and down in the billows…. So that when his vast wrinkled forehead rose… the now rising
swells… vindictively tossed their shivered spray still higher into the air” (Melville 410-411). On
the second day, Moby Dick reveals his position through the “wondrous phenomenon of
breaching” by “rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths” and booming “his entire
bulk into the pure element of the air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam” (Melville 415).
Melville uses phallic imagery to describe Moby Dick in order to raise tension between Ahab,
whom Moby Dick castrated, and the white whale himself. Furthermore, the harpoon that Ahab
darts at Moby Dick is a “phallic mental projection, born of frustrated desire” (Paglia 701). The
phallic imagery present in the final chase provides transforms the whale hunt into a clash of two
masculine forces. Because Ahab is impotent, he uses the harpoon as a phallic representation to
fight Moby Dick; however, Moby Dick is not only sexually potent but also likened to a phallus
himself, Moby Dick wins the struggle for dominance between the two masculine forces. The first
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sighting of Moby Dick also compares the whale to the “white bull Jupiter swimming away with
ravished Europa clinging to his graceful horns, his lovely, leering eyes sideways intent upon the
maid; …rippling straight for the nuptial bower in Crete” (Melville 409). Not only does the final
encounter between the Pequod and Moby Dick create a spectacular display of masculine
violence, but the imagery in chase is also “that of rape, of primal sexual assault” (Shulman 192).
The comparison of Moby Dick to Jupiter, who carries away the maiden Europa to a wedding
chamber, as well as the imagery likening Moby Dick to a phallus, reflects a moral deficiency in
masculinity and the dangers of masculinity by itself. Through the implications of rape and
outright violence between Ahab and Moby Dick, Melville criticizes the destructive nature of
masculinity.
Not only does Melville utilize phallic language to warn against the absence of femininity,
but he also creates the idea of inversion that masculinity imposes. When the Pequod encounters
lightning amidst the storm, Ahab seizes the main-mast links and allows lightning to flow through
him, declaring the lightning his “fiery father” (Melville 383). Following the storm, Ahab
discovers that the lightning had “turned [their] compasses” (Melville 389). The connection
between the masculine nature of the lightning and the inversion of the compass reflects the
notion that masculine elements “can cause a terrible, destructive inversion of the self” (Taylor
337). This idea is repeated when Ishmael dozes off staring into the fire of the try-works and
wakes to discover that he “could see no compass before [him]” and that “the tiller was, somehow,
in some enchanted way, inverted” (Melville 327). In Ishmael’s drowsiness, he had “gotten turned
around and was facing the stern of the ship” and “barely recovers in time to keep the ship from…
capsizing” (Taylor 337-338). Ishmael nearly causes the ship to capsize because of the inversion
the try-works wrought upon him. The try-works themselves are described as a “business”
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(Melville 326), implying that the process is masculine, much like the aforementioned mincing of
the blubber. In this manner, Melville reinforces the destructive nature of masculinity from the
inversion it can cause. The idea of inversion of the self is emphasized through the fate of Pip,
who jumps from the whaleboat and is left in “the middle” of the “heartless immensity” of the sea
(Melville 321). Following his eventual rescue, Pip “went about the deck an idiot”, but Ishmael
declares that the ocean had “jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul”
(Melville 321). The inversion of Pip’s soul from his isolation in the masculine sea emphasizes
the dangerous nature of masculinity. In this manner, Melville warns about the inherent
destructiveness of masculinity in all aspects, from the inversion of guidance to the inversion of
the body and the soul.
Despite Melville’s apparent desire to submerge femininity, his warning of a complete
absence of femininity reflects the idea that femininity and masculinity are mutually integrated
and dependent upon one another. Melville accomplishes this through the Ahab, who, in his
monomaniac vengeance against Moby Dick, declares that his “fixed purpose is laid with iron
rails” (Melville 143). David Dowling notes that Ahab’s life “has become dominated by all work
and no play” (41), as shown when he declares that smoking his pipe “no longer soothes”
(Melville 113). Ahab then discards his pipe; through this action, Melville shows that even the
“domestic pleasure” (Dowling 41) of smoking a pipe eludes Ahab. On the contrary, Ishmael
frequently engages in “broad, divergent thinking” that are associated with “domestic ease”,
unlike the “iron-rails obsessing” that “consumes” Ahab (Dowling 41). The contrast between the
thoughts of Ishmael, who is associated with feminine qualities, and Ahab, who is strictly
masculine, as well as Ahab’s inability to engage in domestic pleasure, reflects the damaging
nature that masculinity possesses, particularly to the soul. This contrast is emphasized through
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the fates of Ahab and Ishmael; Ahab is killed in his vengeance against Moby Dick, whereas
Ishmael survives and becomes the narrator of the novel. Thus, despite his attempts to suppress
femininity, Melville recognizes that moral superiority of femininity is necessary to alleviate the
destructive nature of masculinity. This idea is further developed through Ishmael’s musings
about the business of whaling. As whale blubber is processing through the try-works into oil,
Ishmael describes the Pequod as a “red hell” plunging into “that blackness of darkness” and
seeming “the material counterpart to her monomaniac commander’s soul” (Melville 327).
Melville portrays the masculine whaling business negatively and devoid of light, save for the
hellish fires of the try-works. Immediately afterward, Ishmael muses about tangents regarding
the “brighter female sphere of domestic illumination” (Dowling 43). Melville contrasts the dark,
hellish nature of business aboard the Pequod to the “illuminated shrine” that the feminine lamp
provides. In this manner, Melville implies that men “live in the dark” without “domestic
enlightenment” (Dowling 43). However, Melville also conveys that femininity requires
masculinity as well; while masculinity needs feminine enlightenment, femininity “remains in
darkness” without “publicly produced oil to burn lamps in the parlor” (Dowling 43).
Consequently, femininity and masculinity require each other in order to function successfully.
Melville thus creates a delicate balance between femininity, which he recognizes as necessary,
and masculinity, which he continuously portrays as both superior and destructive.
Throughout Moby-Dick, Melville continuously builds a relationship between the
seemingly antagonistic forces of masculinity and femininity. By attributing major characters with
masculinity or femininity, such as Ahab and Moby Dick, he enriches the plot of what seems to
be a madman’s vengeance into a clash of sexuality. Furthermore, by attributing femininity to
weak characters, such as Starbuck, and weak or undesirable traits, such as powerlessness and the
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restrictive land, he paints a repulsive picture of femininity and attempts to repress it. In a
rejection of femininity, Melville even rejects the institution of marriage, instead preferring
Platonic homosexuality. However, Melville recognizes the necessity of femininity, as the moral
superior to masculinity. Without femininity, masculinity is destructive in all aspects, ranging
from the extension of masculinity into ordinarily feminine domains to the sheer destruction of
the Pequod in Ahab and Moby Dick’s final encounter. Masculinity, Melville notes, is also
damaging to the soul, using the inversion of Pip’s soul as well as Ahab’s inability to enjoy
pleasurable activities, such as smoking a pipe. In this manner, Melville reflects upon the
inseparability of masculinity and femininity and creates a commentary upon the rigid gender
boundaries in the mid-19th century. By removing the role of women and applying the balance of
femininity and masculinity to only men, Melville ignores the rigid division present in his society
and blurs them until masculinity and femininity are inseparably integrated. Melville’s rejection
of the institution of marriage is thus not only a rejection of femininity, but also Melville’s
rejection of institution and systems, such as the separate-sphere ideologies of gender.
Consequently, Moby-Dick serves to convey Melville’s rejection of the gendered mid-19th century
society through its exaggeration of femininity and masculinity in men as well as the
reconciliation that the two forces cannot function without each other. Thus, through a web of
power plays and attributions of sexuality, Melville enacts a progressive commentary on the roles
of masculinity and femininity, both in relation to each other and in relation to everyday life.
Ye 17
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