Herman Melville's Moby Dick

Herman Melville's classic novel, Moby Dick, is a well-known tale describing how vengeance ultimately leads to despair and death. The book takes a very critical look at its characters motivations and its overlying message extends far beyond its plot. The novel primarily focuses on the titular whale and the man hunting it, the rest of the characters upstaged by the themes expressed by the duo. The author's most intricate character, by far, has to be the forceful To summarize the events up the story, it begins with a man named Ishmael. Ishmael, the narrator, joins a crew with a bitter, one-legged captain , in search for adventure with hopes of enjoying nature. However, unbeknownst to him until later, the Captain gathered the crew to bring …show more content…
A seasoned captain who, after tragedy, simply goes off the deep end (in several respects.) The most important thing to note, however, is that he wasn't an evil man in any degree. His crew all held him in high regard, defending him even when Ishmael said a slight regarding his biblical-infamous name. One crewman even refers to him as a 'God-like' being, referring to his prowess in the sea and his attitude in general. However, all of the crew maintain wary of him, discussing his bizarre (lack-of) sleeping habits and in fact realizing that his plot to take the ship off-course just to take down a whale is an insane one... And yet, 'like machines', they followed his every word until the …show more content…
The vengeful sea-captain shows himself ready to give extra-money just for the person who first sees the whale, and gives his life to take down the whale who hurt his. Besides this, Ahab had a somewhat personal relationship with his crew, who all respected and revered him due to his skill and forceful presence, but despite him being a monomaniac. Through all of this, Melville's Moby Dick benefits from having such a well-developed, interesting and tragic hero that supports the plot