Herman Melville: from "Moby Dick" - Discuss Flashcards
note
- 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
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
how Ahab’s obsession against Moby Dick had infected his crew
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
that obsessions are so powerful they often have outward manifestations
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
of Ahab’s all-consuming obsession
Carefully read the highlighted passage in Paragraph 41 from Moby Dick. Here Melville observes that “admonitions and warnings” are actually more like
verifications of foregoing things within
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
an element of Gothic Fiction - foreshadowing