赫尔曼梅尔维尔和白鲸记介绍

Herman Melville was an American novelist, writer, , and poet. He was born in August 1, 1819 in the United States of New York. He is best known for his novel . British author Maugham argues that Melville's "Moby-Dick" is the ten largest in the world literature classics. Melville is also known as the "Shakespeare of the United States ".

Early life

His path through life was hard. He was born into an American merchant family. His grandfather had taken part in the American War of Independence and had a certain effect in the community. But His father's bankruptcy led him a bad life. When he was 12 years old, his father was died. Three years later he had to drop out of school. Because a family circumstance was worse he had to seek a job to support himself and his family. He worked as a farmer, staff, teachers, seaman, Navy. He had tasted the sweets and bitters of life.

Travels in the Pacific (1841-1845)

In 1841, he became a seaman on the whaling ship. In the next 4 years, he went to many places in the world with the whaling ship, greatly widened horizon. Not only that, he and the other partners on the whaling ship, with the captain’s autocratic behavior to do a struggle. Because worked for riot and other reasons he was imprisoned. He had wandered to Tahiti Island and Mark Island in Texas, at a man-eating custom tribe lived for a period of time. Later, he joined the American warship "American", until 1844 when he landed in Boston, ending his own life at sea. These experiences provide a rich source material for his writing.

Retiring from the army

In 1845, he left the army and returned to American, started his writing life. The first novel Typee is based on his South Pacific's life. As his professional fortunes waned, he had difficulties at home. He died at his home in New York City early on the morning of September 28, 1891, at age 72. The doctor listed "cardiac dilation" on the death certificate.

His first three books gained much contemporary attention but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime.

When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. In 1919 the unfinished manuscript for his novella was discovered by his first biographer. He published a version in 1924 which was quickly acclaimed by notable British critics as another masterpiece of Melville's. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the .

Moby-Dick (The Whale)

Summary

It is considered to be one of the and a treasure of world . The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the , commanded by Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab has one purpose on this voyage: to seek out Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white . In a previous encounter, the whale

destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg, which now drives Ahab to take revenge. The whale eventually destroys the whaleboats and crew, and sinks the Pequod.

The genesis for Moby-Dick

Two actual events served as the genesis for Moby-Dick. One was the sinking of the ship in 1820, after it was rammed by a large 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America.

The other event was the alleged killing in the late 1830s of the sperm whale , in the waters off the island of . Mocha Dick was rumored to have twenty or so harpoons in his back from other whalers, and appeared to attack ships with premeditated ferocity. Character

Ishmael

Ishmael is a seaman of the Pequod. He is the narrator of the story, and the hunting is narrated by him. He is the only person who was survived at last. Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of from human society. In the last line of the book, Ishmael also refers to himself symbolically as an orphan, which maintains the Biblical connection and emphasizes the representation of outcasts. Ishmael has a rich literary background, which he brings to bear on his shipmates and events that occur while at sea. His assurance that "only I alone escaped to tell you" is the messenger's admonishment in Job.

Ahab

Ahab is the tyrannical captain of the Pequod who is driven by a (偏执的) desire to kill Moby Dick, the whale that had maimed him off the coast of during a previous whaling voyage. Although he is a , he seeks revenge in defiance of his religion's well-known . He is the central character of the story.

Moby Dick

He is a giant, largely white, bull and arguably the main of the novel. Melville describes him as having prominent white areas around his wrinkled forehead and dorsal fin, the rest of his body being of stripes and patchwork between white and gray. He bit off Ahab's leg, leaving Ahab to swear revenge. The also attacked the Rachel and killed the captain's son. At the end of the story he kills the entire crew of the Pequod, with the exception of Ishmael.

Symbolic Meaning

Moby Dick

The white whale Moby Dick is obviously the most important symbol in the novel. Everyone is searching for the symbolic meaning of the White Whale. Moby Dick and everyone are trying to explain their own understanding of it in different ways. Characters like Stub and Flask measure it by monetary value. In Ahab’s eyes, Moby Dick is an incarnation of evil which he feels a compulsion to destroy. However, the Whale holds different meanings for Ishmael. For Ishmael, the Whale is complicated and mysterious. It represents many conflicting meanings: purity, beauty, and innocence on the one hand; evil, terror and death on the other hand. Therefore, the

meaning of the Whale varies if we see it in different circumstances and from different perspectives.

Ahab

The symbolic meaning contained in the image Ahab is abstruse and various. A contradiction of multi-sided temperament, he is named after King Ahab, a heinous king of Israel in the Bible. He takes his own course, disregards the safety of the crew and finally makes almost all the crew drowned in the sea. From this angle, he is the symbol of an authentic tyrant and the symbol of an evil, and also the symbol of evil and dark in human consciousness. From another angel, Ahab is willing to abandon the easy life and goes to the sea for adventure. His purpose is to chase the whale for vengeance on surface, but actually is the reconstruction of himself and the pursuit of the ease and freedom of soul.

Pequod And The Sea

Pequod is a name of an Indian tribe that was destroyed by Whites. So in the beginning the ship was doomed to be destroyed. Melville uses the sea as a metaphor for the world and mankind. There are many creatures that depend on the water and others who depend on the creatures. In order for everything to be balanced, people must learn to coexist peacefully when they try to meet all of the different needs that they may have. The multiple ships that the Pequod meets at the travel represent different cultures of people.

Ahab Hunt Moby-Dick

Ahab represents human beings and Moby-Dick represents the nature. The contradiction between Ahab and Moby-Dick represents the contradiction between human beings and the nature, good and evil. The contradiction makes people go forward.

Comment

There is no doubt that Herman Melville’s (1819-1891) longest novel Moby Dick is one of the great masterpieces of fiction in the nineteenth-century American literature history, for it is “not only a very big book; it is also a peculiarly full and rich one, and from the very opening it conveys a sense of abundance, of high creative power, that exhilarates and enlarges the imagination.”(Richard Chase, 1962:39)The novel is generally regarded as an encyclopedia of many things: history, religion, philosophy and so on, in addition to a detailed account of human beings’ encroachment on nature. My thoughts

In the book lives a deep impression on me is the captain Ahab. He is a brave man and his courage, belief is admirable. But I think it is individualism. Ahab wants to kill Moby-Dick. His heart is full of hatred for Moby-Dick. Anyone would hate the animal that bites off his leg. However, Ahab does not realize that he wants to kill Moby-Dick; he will push himself and other seamen into death. Because of the hate Ahab wants to

kill Moby-Dick, and in spite of the lives of others. The story of Ahab might be regards as a story that a brave man against a strong enemy. In my opinion Ahab’s behavior that in spite of the lives of seamen is not admirable.

Works

《泰比》(Typee,1846)

《奥姆》(Omoo,1847)

《玛迪》(Mardi,1849)

《白鲸》又译《莫比.迪克》(Moby-Dick,1851)

《伊斯雷尔·波特》(Israel Potter,1855)

《南北战争诗集》又译《战事集》(Battle Pieces: Civil War poems,1866)

《克拉瑞尔》(Clarel,1876) ——长诗

《约翰·玛尔和其他水手》(John Marr and Other Sailors，1888) ——诗集

《梯摩里昂》(Timoleon,1891) ——诗集

《水手比利·巴德》(Billy Budd,1924) [于作者去世后出版]