"As they narrated to each other their unholy adventures, their tales of terror told in words of mirth; as their uncivilized laughter forked upwards out of them, like the flames from the furnace; as to and from, in their front, the harpooners wildly gesticulated with their huge pronged forks and dippers; as the wind howled on, and the sea leaped, and the ship groaned and dived, and yet steadfastly shot her red hell further and further into the blackness of the sea and the night, and scornfully champed the white bone in her mouth, and viciously spat round her on all sides; then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her m

Although his insanity is similar to the appearance of the crew in this excerpt, the meaning is better described in another sentence: "he was intent on an audacious, immitigable, and supernatural revenge." (Melville 202) The purpose of Ahab's mission is simply that of revenge. It is the same as the case with Satan who never recovered from being thrown out of heaven.

Through the use of a complex metaphor the religious imagery in Melville's Moby Dick has been revealed. It is easy to see why the novel is hard to understand. It is sometimes more complicated than the Bible itself. It can also seem as long as the bible too.

The wind from these lines can be compared with the stars in other lines and the ocean in even more. Imagery of Nature seems to be used in the book to represent the force of God. At one point along the voyage, Ishmael takes, "the mystic ocean...for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature." (Melville 172-3) All of these images come out to be the idea of God as a giant, unstoppable force who sweeps God's power across every corner of the universe.

onomaniac commander's soul." (Melville 463)

This quote shows that the Devil is in Captain Ahab,. The entire quote shows his manipulation of his crew. Words like "flames," "blackness," "howled," and "huge pronged forks" turn the Pequod into a habitation of evil spirits. The influence of the commander can be seen upon these innocent men, whose only mistakes were failing to see the truth behind Ahab's insane mission. The same idea is stated in Kyle Kombrink's essay "A Passionate Soul in Hell." Kombrink writes, "The mind set of the captain is then carried over to his crew, so to be unified under a hierarchical structure. His madness becomes their dread and becomes the drive in all on board. The savage comes out in them all." The word savageness shows a hatred of religious morality. Therefore, the men are unholy as they stand on board of their ship that is laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into the blackness of darkness. All the momentum built up by the rushing of the ship towards the unnamed goal reaches its peak in the last statement , in which we realize that the aspects of the crew are exaggerated about in order to describe something much more evil - the insanity of Ahab himself.

This fall is astonishing, because of the glory which is in all human beings, but, men are also created with free will, and the choice of evil is always possible. Once accepted, the result is a fall from valor to ruin. The most sorrowful thing is not freely chosen but is tempted by the Devil. Although man is divine, it takes Christ to combat the size of such an opponent. Just as Eve cannot refuse the charming words of the serpent, Starbuck cannot resist the force of captain Ahab: "...brave as he might be," Melville writes, "Starbuck cannot withstand those more terrific, because more spiritual terrors, which sometimes menace you from the concentrating brow of an enraged and mighty man." (Melville 126) Mankind has fallen victim to the manipulations o

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2072
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)