You, Me, and the Lee: Meaning in Melville

Suggested Reading:

Moby-Dick, or the Whale, by Herman Melville... of course.


Outline of the Argument:

Part I: The Whale

Key word: wonder

I. Opaque/Oblique Meaning

            Opaque: aware of meaning without comprehending

            Oblique: indicates presence of opaque by recreating feeling of wonder

                        Metaphor achieves this: Moby-Dick contains massive metaphor

                        Whale = oblique meaning, indicating opaque.                                   

II. Melville digressions.  He does not digress; he simply sees meaning in everything!

            Imagine monuments in his novel to everything he observes, and its meaning.

                        Ahab’s battle against the whale, Moby Dick.

                       

III. Center of novel: contrast between Ahab and Ishmael

            “Call me Ishmael:” Ishmael is not his name.

                        He’s an allegory for wanderer, for no one.

                        He might as well be Ishmael, the banished son of Abraham, the Not-Isaac

            “Ahab was a crowned king:” he is more than other men

                        A representation of human greatness.

                        Ahab is in a position to know, to comprehend, to be included; yet still isn’t.

                                    This is why he hunts Moby Dick.

IV. The whale = Stonehenge.  Meaning withheld; we can’t encompass it, yet it is. 

            Melville’s digression is a product of his wonder.