Moby Dick (idea)

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." Thus Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in "Nature", "In the woods, we return to faith and reason." Emerson and Thoreau's nature was an idyllic wilderness, where man found his niche and lived in harmony with the elements, and in doing so, discovered the truths of existance. Herman Melville's nature was stark, dangerous and unfeeling, ruled by chaos and chance. Moby Dick attacks Captain Ahab of the Pequod and devours his leg. Ahab fails to accept that the loss of his leg was utterly random and devoid of meaning.

The Transcendentalists, including Emerson and Thoreau, had a rather naïve view of nature, according to Melville. The foundation of Transcendental belief was rooted in the idea that "universal truths" could be discovered by finding one's place in nature. Transcendentalists believed nature was understandable and events were not without meaning. If one transcended his physical senses and became one with the natural world--Emerson's "transparent eyeball"--the "universal truths" would become apparent.

Melville took a somewhat less optimistic view of nature. As exemplified in Moby Dick, Melville found nature indifferent, inexplicable and meaningless. The great white whale attacks Ahab at random. Meville does not seem to suggest that understanding nature would bring Ahab any closer to understanding Moby Dick's attack. In fact, the very lack of reason in the attack drives Ahab insane, thirsting for vengeance and hell-bent on killing the whale. Ahab frequently rallies his crew, crying, "Death to Moby-Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby-Dick to his death!"

Ahab, while not a Transcendentalist, is romantic. His obsession with revenge on Moby Dick is irrational and deeply emotional, and his brief lucid moments are quickly pushed away by opportunities to hunt the whale. His entire quest revolves around himself; he only informs the crew once they leave the harbor that this voyage of the Pequod would not be a simple whaling voyage. Ahab is not, however, an Antitranscendentalist like Melville; Ahab believes that nature has meaning, though Meville disagrees personally. Starbuck, Ahab's first mate and the sole voice of reason, is more probably Melville's outlet for his own views in Moby Dick: "Oh! Ahab ... not too late is it, even now, the third day, to desist. See! Moby-Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"

Whereas Melville's nature is a harsh, unforgiving place, Emerson and Thoreau's nature is peaceful and driven by higher meaning. Thoreau went into the woods to find himself, like Ishmael went to sea to find himself. However, Thoreau seemed to find the wisdom and vision he craved; Ishmael found a confusing, chaotic maelstrom: "'The ship? Great God, where is the ship?' ... And now, concentric circles seized the lone boat itself ... and spinning, animate and inanimate, all round and round in one vortex, carried the smallest chip of the Pequod out of sight."