Herman Melville: from "Moby Dick" - Discuss

Question 1

note

Answer 1

• central theme: the tragedy that often accompanies
• element 6: supernatural events, ghosts, unexplained sounds, etc.
• element 4: omens, foreshadowing, and dreams play a role in the mysterious air of the story
• element 8: words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom
• element 9: the death of a man or woman in the throes of some great passion, the obsessive nature of a man or woman in love, or excessive grief one feels upon the loss of a loved one

Question 2

in paragraph 50 from Moby Dick, Melville’s description of the frantic crew that simultaneously quaffed down with a hiss amidst their cries and maledictions against the white whale indicate

Answer 2

how Ahab’s obsession against Moby Dick had infected his crew

Question 3

the following passage from Paragraph 3 of Melville’s Moby Dick alludes to the theme
… you could almost see that thought turn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely possessing him, indeed, that it all but seemed the inward mold of every outer movement

Answer 3

that obsessions are so powerful they often have outward manifestations

Question 4

the following passage from Paragraph 2 of Melville’s Moby Dick alludes to the theme
Did you fixedly gaze, too, upon that ribbed and dented brow; there also, you would see still stranger foot-prints–the foot-prints of his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought

Answer 4

of Ahab’s all-consuming obsession

Question 5

Carefully read the highlighted passage in Paragraph 41 from Moby Dick. Here Melville observes that “admonitions and warnings” are actually more like

Answer 5

verifications of foregoing things within

Question 6

in Melville’s Moby Dick, the description in paragraph 9 of Ahab looking like “the weather horizon when a storm is coming up” is an example of

Answer 6

an element of Gothic Fiction - foreshadowing