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suddenly turn round and stave their boats to splinters or drive them back to their ship. What seemed the White Whale's "infernal aforethought of ferocity" that every dismembering or death that he caused was not wholly regarded as that of an "unintelligent agent". He bit off Ahab's leg, leaving Ahab to swear "wild vindictiveness" on him. Ishmael, however, is haunted by a "nameless horror" so "mystical and well nigh ineffable" that he could hardly express; it was "the whiteness of the whale that above all things appalled me".
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sperm whales can reach a length of 90 ft (27 m) (larger than any officially recorded sperm whale) and that Moby Dick is possibly the largest sperm whale that ever lived. Ahab tells the crew that the White Whale can be told because he has an unusual spout, a deformed jaw, three punctures in his right
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describes Moby Dick as having two prominent white areas around "a peculiar snow-white wrinkled forehead, and a high, pyramidical white hump", the rest of his body being of stripes and patches between white and gray. The animal's exact dimensions are never given, but the novel claims that the largest
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Melville presents Moby Dick as a symbol of many things, among them God, nature, fate, evil, the ocean, and the very universe itself. Yet the symbolism of the White Whale is deliberately enigmatic, and its inscrutability is a deliberate challenge to the reader. Ishmael describes the whale's forehead
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and several harpoons embedded in his side from unsuccessful hunts. Yet
Ishmael insists that what invested the whale with "natural terror" was that "unexampled, intelligent malignity" which he had shown in his assaults. When he fled before "exalting pursuers", giving every symptom of alarm, he would
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Mocha Dick had over 100 encounters with whalers in the decades between 1810 and the 1830s. He was described as being gigantic and covered in barnacles. Although he was the most famous, Mocha Dick was not the only white whale in the sea nor the only whale to attack hunters. While an accidental
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This renowned monster, who had come off victorious in a hundred fights with his pursuers, was an old bull whale, of prodigious size and strength. From the effect of age, or more probably from a freak of nature ... a singular consequence had resulted –
195:. Mocha Dick was rumored to have nineteen harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity. One of his battles with a whaler served as subject for an article by explorer
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If then, Sir
William Jones, who read in thirty languages, could not read the simplest peasant's face in its profounder and more subtle meanings, how may unlettered Ishmael hope to read the awful
141:. Ahab and the crew are drowned, with the exception of Ishmael. The novel does not say whether Moby Dick survives or not - although most of the novel's adaptations depict the whale's survival.
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whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster.
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Although attacks by whales on whalers were not at all common, there were instances, of which
Melville was aware.
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Reynolds, J.N., "Mocha Dick: or the White Whale of the
Pacific: A Leaf from a Manuscript Journal,"
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383:, New York : The Rosen Publishing Group, 2004. Cf. Chapter 3, "Moby Dick: The Inspiration".
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The Great Sperm Whale: A Natural
History of the Oceans Most Magnificent and Mysterious Creature.
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rammed her 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from the western coast of South
America. First mate
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Narrative of the Most
Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex
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Report of the
Commissioner By United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, p115
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Moby Dick with his head out of the water and breaking a boat in half with his jaws
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of the Sperm Whale's brow? I but put that brow before you. Read it if you can.
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Ch 103, “The
Measurement of a Whale’s Skeleton,” Melville, Herman. (1851)
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Melville's
Reflections, a page from The Life and Works of Herman Melville
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collision with a sperm whale at night accounted for sinking of the
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CHAPTER 42. The Whiteness of The Whale", Melville, Herman. (1851)
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The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the
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to be attacked, holed and sunk by a whale. Melville remarked:
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Chapter 36. "The Quarter-Deck", Melville, Herman. (1851)
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Moby Dick and the whaling industry of the 19th century
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in 1807, it was not until August 1851 that the whaler
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255:as having wrinkles and scars on it that look like
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137:At the end of the novel, Moby Dick destroys the
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241:Ye Gods! What a commentator is this
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903:In the Heart of the Sea
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366:Moby~Dick or, the Whale
353:Moby~Dick or, the Whale
316:Moby~Dick or, the Whale
303:Moby~Dick or, the Whale
164:in 1820, after a large
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691:Moby Dick - Rehearsed
213:he was white as wool!
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121:Description
101:sperm whale
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675:Television
552:Bulkington
519:Characters
191:island of
185:Mocha Dick
170:Owen Chase
115:Mocha Dick
66:Mocha Dick
52:Created by
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819:Leviathan
812:Dicky Moe
758:Moby-Dick
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250:Symbolism
154:Nantucket
110:Moby-Dick
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35:character
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25:Moby Dick
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542:Queequeg
272:See also
62:Based on
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840:Railsea
537:Ishmael
432:, 66–79
265:Chaldee
189:Chilean
126:Ishmael
77:Species
906:(film)
898:(book)
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686:(1954)
667:(2010)
659:(1978)
643:(1956)
635:(1930)
627:(1926)
574:Pequod
512:(1851)
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181:albino
157:whaler
139:Pequod
87:Gender
872:Essex
769:Other
726:Stage
566:Ships
289:Notes
235:Essex
221:Union
193:Mocha
161:Essex
131:fluke
616:Film
419:ISBN
90:Male
557:Pip
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