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Chapter 81
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Moby-Dick, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Limits of Knowledge
Fate and Free Will
Nature and Man
Race, Fellowship, and Enslavement
Madness
Religion
Summary
Analysis
Ishmael reports that he considers a great number of historical and mythological figures also to be whalemen: Perseus, who slew the Leviathan and saved Andromeda; Hercules, whose feats very well might have included animals “from the deep”; and St. George, the protector of England, whose “dragon” some accounts believe actually to be a whale, or an ocean-monster. Ishmael reports that he is proud to number himself a sailor among these “ranks.”
Ishmael has viewed whales and whaling through the lenses of science, art, and philosophy. Now he views it through the lens of mythology, both Greek and Christian. In doing so he elevates skillful whalers to a heroic status, and further denigrates those like Derick and the crew of the Virgin who dishonor whaling through their bumbling efforts.
Themes
Quiz
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