Ahab as the Hero of Moby Dick Essay -- Moby Dick Essays

Ahab as theHero of Moby Dick One top executive think it a difficult task to find a sad hero hidden in the pages of Moby Dick. Yet, there is certainly potential for consider Ahab as heroic scorn unfavorable responses to him by the reader. In the true formula coming from the Greeks, the tragic hero had to be a high-born exclusive of elevated status possessed of a fatal flaw which resulted in their downf all in all. With Othello Shakespeare redefined elevated status to include position alone rather than cosmos conjugate to societal or birth status. In this way it was workable for Othello as the military leader to be the tragic hero despite being an outsider in the composition of the society. Melville follows this example in Moby-Dick. On board the Pequod, Ahab as the ships captain assumes the role of king or authoritarian that gives him the elevated status to fit this traditional view of the hero (Millhauser 76). Melville himself wrote workforce may seem detestable . . . men may have call up and meagre faces but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand and glowing creature, that incessantlyywhere any ignominious pick out in him all his fellows should run to throw their costliest robes . . . . If, and then, to meanest mariners, and renegades and castaways, I shall hereafter impute high qualities, though dark weave round them tragic graces . . . then against all mortal critics bear me out in it, thou well(p) Spirit of Equality, which has spread one royal mantle of humanity over all my kind . . . . Thou who, in all Thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions from the kingly commons bear me out in it, O theology (444-445) Melville takes the traditional heroic view and reinterprets it from the American... ... halters round their necks but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life (Melville 545). With these words, A habs fate is linked with a universal fate of mankind. Through this common denominator, Ahabs struggle becomes that of all men everywhere. In Ahab, Melville developed an unlikely hero. He is not ever appealing, but he does seek within his own realm of fellowship and experience to overcome what he perceives as a major offense force. Ultimately, Ahab gives his life in pursuit of a betterment for everyone. Works Cited Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. 8 Classic American Novels. Ed. David Madden. San Diego Harcourt, 1990. Millhauser, Milton. The Form of Moby-Dick. Critics on Melville. Ed. Thomas J. Rountree. Coral Gables U of Miami P, 1972. 76-80.