Moby-Dick: Foreshadowing 4 key examples

Mapple’s references to the captain’s selfish decisions in the tale are particularly pointed, hinting toward the selfish captain Ishmael will soon find himself under, Captain Ahab. The story, a fable that warns of the dangers of following one’s own whims over the word of God, ultimately foreshadows the harm that will come from Ahab’s rejection of Christianity and the championing of his own will. That the tale of Jonah is referenced multiple times throughout the novel also speaks to its intended significance.

Furthermore, Mapple’s emphasis on the nature of Jonah’s repentance, by which he goes on to “preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood,” foreshadows the messenger role Ishmael will eventually have. After all, after surviving the sinking of the Pequod, Ishmael will go on to tell the story of this fated ship far and wide both in the stories he tells others afterwards and also in the writing of Moby-Dick itself. By associating this function of Ishmael with the biblical tale of Jonah, Melville suggests that Ishmael’s role as the Pequod’s prophet is God-ordained, implying that he's destined to be the sole survivor of the ship for this exact purpose. Ishmael’s name, which means “God will hear,” further alludes to this function.

Here, Ishmael recounts a series of potential portents, with the symbols of the coffin, tombstones, and the gallows all pointing to death and emphasizing the grisly nature of the whaling business. His unnerve at the signs are clear, with him interpreting the two remaining horns as meant for him and Queequeg, an interpretation that heavily hints at the danger ahead for both characters.

However, these symbols are far from the only references that foreshadow the novel’s fatal ending. Death is linked to the sea from the very start. When Ishmael describes his draw to the sea, he describes it as a self-destructive impulse, comparing it to to the act of suicide: “With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.” The Pequod, we are told, is named after a now extinct Native American tribe and is described as a “most melancholy” craft. Ahab, whose name Peleg tells us is believed to be prophetic, is named after a monomaniac, slain king. In other words, the novel is full of fatal references that steep the story in a sense of foreboding and force the reader to anticipate the novel’s grisly end. The heavy use of foreshadowing also plays into the novel's discussion of fate, with the multiple allusions to the fatal ending that awaits the Pequod making it seem as if the ship's tragedy was always predetermined.

This description of the Pequod is gothic and haunting, as the ship is described as being covered in bones and teeth. The excess of language reflects the decadence of the image described, with the boat likened to a warrior dripping with pendants. The range of countries referred to in the description of the Pequod is also notable, as Ishmael elsewhere compares it in various ways to Ethiopia, France, Egypt, Siberia, Japan, Germany, England, and North America. This emphasis on worldliness reflects the diversity of the whaling industry itself: the crew of the Pequod come from different corners of the world. This element is one example of the way the physical ship functions as a representation of its crew.

The use of personification is also important. Ishmael gives the ship with its own power and depicts it as a monster in and of itself. Not only is the ship referred to as a “she,” it is also ascribed with its own anatomy, as Ishmael describes its “jaw," its “brows,” and its “complexion.” What's more, the ship apparently even has its own “enemies”—that is, the whales previously hunted by men on the ship. By referring to these as the enemies of the ship itself, Ishmael conflates the crew and the ship in a way that puts an emphasis on the way they come to be bound together. In turn, the Pequod itself functions as a representation of its passengers. With this in mind, the morbidity of the ship’s decoration becomes even more significant, as it foreshadows the fatalities and the loss that lie ahead. After all, the men and the ship will come to meet their ends together.

Here, Elijah’s question of whether their contracts included anything about their souls alludes to Faust, a character who strikes a bargain with the devil and signs his soul away in exchange for unlimited knowledge. By comparing Ishmael and Queequeg’s shipping onto the Pequod with that of the selling of one’s soul, Melville immediately makes clear the high stakes that are at play and foreshadows the novel's dark ending. The allusion to Faust, who cooperates with the devil, links the Pequod to dark forces, an implication that foreshadows later revelations of Ahab’s blasphemy—for example, his baptism of his harpoon “in nomine diaboli!” (in the name of the devil). That Faust trades his soul for knowledge also alludes to the novel’s exploration of man’s quest for meaning and the dangers that come with not accepting the limitations of worldly knowledge.

The allusion to Faust goes further still by invoking questions of fate and free will, a theme that is a major preoccupation of both Faust and Moby-Dick. When Ishmael confirms they have signed onto the Pequod, Elijah continues:

“Ye’ve shipped, have ye? Names down on the papers? Well, well, what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it won’t be, after all. Anyhow, it’s all fixed and arranged a’ready; and some sailors or other must go with him, I suppose; as well these as any other men.” 

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Here, Elijah’s speech encompasses the tension that is constantly at play between fate and free will in the novel. While his declaration that “what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will be” seems to present a clear fatalistic interpretation, with Ishmael and Queequeg’s doomed fate now secured, this is tempered by his comment that “perhaps it won’t be, after all” as well as his emphasis on the importance of signing, an act that requires agency. Indeed, the stress put on the power of the written word, with it being the signing of their names that binds them to the Pequod, speaks to the novel’s exploration of writing as an act of self determination. Ishmael’s writing of Moby-Dick, most centrally, is presented as a way of claiming one’s own narrative. The allusion to Faust—in which the question of whether it is Faust’s agency in signing the deal or a greater force that is in control is left unresolved—is thus apt for Moby Dick, where the reader must also come to their own conclusion.