分析《白鲸》的象征手法

毕业论文

题目：分析《白鲸》的象征手法Title: On the Use of Symbolism in Moby Dick

Introduction

The novel Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, is generally regarded as one of the most popular and the world’s greatest masterpieces in America literature. In this book, Symbolism is given a full use, providing readers with another way to understand the novel and creating the literary value above time and space.

Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. His parents were of middle—class family background. His childhood was a secure and comfortable one, but his fate changed in 1832, when his father died and left the family with huge debts. Therefore he was forced to drop out, and engaged in lots of jobs. Among them, the early sailing experiences were quite rewarding. It not only became a store of raw materials for his visions of life but also broadened his horizon. That is to say his real education was at sea. Once he said “a whale—ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.” Melville began working on Moby Dick about a “whaling voyage” in 1850 when he was halfway in the work; he met Hawthorne, who is an American Shakespeare to him. As a result of his impacts for Hawthorne, Moby Dick appeared in late 1851.

Moby Dick is a whaling tale based on Melville’s experiences of sailor’s years; the direct source Melville’s sailing experiences accumulate to his writing. In addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry, the novel is also considered as an encyclopedia of everything: history, philosophy, religion, etc. (刘洊波. 2000. P.80). Unluckily, it was overlooked in its author’s time due to its deep worry about human civilization and gloomy atmosphere of pessimism. Melville’s reputation “surged from the lesser American writers into the rarefied company of Shakespeare and a few fellow immortals of world literature so that only Whitman, James, and Faulkner were seen as his American equals.”(Gottesman 2044). His literary reputation naturally leads to a study of the story of the big whale. Discussing on the use of Symbolism in Moby Dick, we mention The White Whale, Ahab, the ship Pequod. This

paper will show the tragedy by analyzing the symbolic meaning of the factors. Chapter I. Embodiment of Mystical Color in Moby Dick

In Webster’s New World College Dictionary, the word “mystic” means “beyond human comprehension; mysterious or enigmatic” and in the second entry under the word “mystical”, it interprets the word as “of mystics or mysticism; ESP. relating to or based on intuition, contemplation, or meditation of a spiritual nature”(Agnes 954). According to Steven Fanning, “mysticism is the direct intuition or experience of God or every religious tendency that discovers the direct way to God through inner experience without the meditation of reasoning. The constitutive element in mysticism is immediacy of contact with the deity (Fanning 2).

In Moby Dick, the essence of mysticism is not seen in a direct manner, but it is in meditation with some symbols. That is to say some symbolic designs of The White Whale are colored with a heavy mystical atmosphere. With regard to symbolic meaning of The White Whale, it has different views. Some people think it represents virtue and innocence, others suppose it is a symbol of inner evil. Still others say it symbolizes nature. To sum up, manifestation of mysterious color in Moby Dick is attained by symbols.

1.1 Symbol of Nature

Nature is all the plants, animals and things that exist in the universe that are not made by people. The White Whale is an animal living in the water that nurses its young and breathes air just like human beings. In line with the definition of nature, obviously it belongs to a sort of species in a natural world. In the novel, Moby Dick is equal to immense ocean, namely nature. Melville prefaces Moby Dick with a brief list of the words for “whale”in thirteen different languages. Then he adds a list of “Extracts”from various references to whales found in literature all over the world. One of the important reasons of having compiled list of remarks is that “He wants us to realize that the whale has since time immemorial, been a symbol of the powerful

and mysterious forces of nature.”Meanwhile the writer expresses another subject which illustrates the relationship between people and nature. When the captain Ahab captures Moby Dick, who has torn away his leg, it implies the inevitable result of people and nature fight: the destruction of human.

As we all know, Moby Dick is a fierce and cunning creature, so it has powers to kill human aboard. In the eyes of ordinary people, whales are such great powers that they are frightened. On the contrary, some hunters who are good at whaling always take voyages to pursue whales. Perhaps it is a way to earn money. However it is very dangerous to do so and this action may result in extinction of whales. Finally it breaks the ecological balance. Nevertheless human must pay a heavy price and nature is capable of destroying the human world such as some major disasters: earthquake, volcanic eruption, flood, debris flow etc. In the modern time, with development of science and technology, many countries make every effort to promote economy in the expense of environment. Consequently it causes some natural disasters as if nature had revenged on pollution of the environment. In the book the author conveys a message that if human plundered nature endlessly, human would take a risk of dying out. Man, no matter how hard he tries, is doomed and has to yield up to the mercy of nature.

1.2 Symbol of Evil

To Pequod’s crew, the legendary White Whale is a concept onto which they can displace their anxieties about their dangerous and often frightening jobs. Since they have no delusions about Moby Dick acting malevolently toward men or literally embodying evil, tales about the whale allow them to confront their fear, manage it, and continue to function. To Ahab, The White Whale is an evil because it takes off his leg on a previous voyage. Ahab is absorbed in great hatred and swears to take revenge on Moby Dick, a white whale that tortures him both physically and spiritually. Late Ahab insists on chasing the whale. In order to kill the whales, he asks people on aboard to assist him by the temptation of money. During three days of the war, they

defeat each other by turn. But on the third day, Ahab kills the White Whale, yet all the human beings involved, except the narrator, die in the process. Actually Ahab claims that Moby Dick is chiefly what he hates and he believes that Moby Dick is a manifestation of all that is wrong with the world, and he feels that it is his destiny to eradicate this symbolic evil. From the tragedy, the conclusion is reached that Moby Dick threatens and harms the human, even kills the human.

Considering human nature, the purpose of Moby Dick is to reveal the existence evil in life and human’ spirit. There is a proverb “No man is perfect.” After all, human is not God, and every person has merits and shortcomings. In effect, evil isn’t terrible, and it mainly depends on how we treat it. Sometimes we may show our weaknesses in real life, but just as the saying goes, a horse stumbles that has four legs. Regardless of our shortcomings, we enjoy a meaningful and fruitful life in general.

1.3 Symbol of Virtue and Innocence

In Melville’s life, he went to sea at about 20. Gradually he developed love for sea and aroused his desire for adventure. In 1841, he signed on for a long whaling cruise to the South Seas. At that time, whaling was an important industry for New England, and people would hunt whales to get the sperm which was used in making perfume. Working as a sailor, he gained a lot of information about whaling which displays some real situation about capturing whales. Apart from these facts, the novel’s setting is to describe the age of rapidly developing the whaling industry in 19th century, and Ahab on the ship Pequod is engaged in whaling for 40 years. It’s clear that it is common to catch whales in American society.

On the other hand, American literature gives a unique symbolic “white”and culture has a special meaning. Melville has intention in the choice of white color. In the common sense, the white color reflects pure and innocent, and we think nature is quiet, peaceful and friendly. As long as human is able to understand people and nature of the relationship between such co—existence and does n’t disturb it, nature will not destroy human. Otherwise human dooms to die. In natural world, the White Whales

live a carefree life; they never take the initiative to close to and attack human. However sailors try to conquer and destroy them, at last they are to be destroyed.

Chapter II. On the Duality of Captain Ahab’s Personality

Captain Ahab is the main human character of the novel. To some extent, justice and wickedness can be observed on him, who demonstrates an admirable quality: dauntlessness, courage, rich experience; and who possesses some fearful evil power: monomania, selfishness, despotism. (白凤欣. 2007. 第34卷2期). As the critic M.H.Abrams stated “such a tragic hero Ahab moves us to pity because he isn’t a complete villain, and his misfortune is greater than he deserves; but what he makes us fear is that we recognize similar possibilities of error in our own lesser and fallible selves.” The words summarize the existence duality of Ahab’s personality.

Unlike the heroes of older tragic works, Ahab suffers from a fatal flaw that is not necessarily inborn but instead stems from damage, in his case psychological and physical, inflicted by life in a harsh world. He is as much a victim as he is an aggressor, and symbolic opposition that he constructs between himself and Moby Dick propels him toward what he considers a destined end. Ahab’s motivation, personality and destiny reflect the tragedy of heroism temperament. Melville successfully creates the tragic hero which reveals the truth that the relationship of people and nature must maintain harmony and unity.

2.1 A God—Like Man

Long before Ahab’s first appearance, there is an air of mystery about captain of the Pequod. The first we learn of the captain’s appearance is that he does n’t seem to be ill but looks “like a man cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunning wasted all the limbs without consuming them.” Next we are told that Ahab looks like a sculpture of solid bronze; he is compared to an oak or some other sort of great tree. The captain has a prominent scar, “lividly whitish,” running from the top of his head down his face and neck until it disappears beneath his clothing. It’s compared to the mark of a lightning bolt, and an old Indian on board claims that it runs the length of Ahab’s body, “crown to sole”; we get the feeling that a lightning bolt pierced this

“grand, ungodly, god—like man”(Chapter 16) to his very soul. There is a grim look on the captain’s face, “infinity of firmest fortitude, a determinate, and unsurrenderable”willfulness in his visage. This is all so overpowering that it takes Ishmael a few seconds to notice the leg------barbaric, white, ivory prosthesis “fashioned from the polished bone of the sperm whale’s jaw.”The lower tip of the artificial leg is anchored in a hole in the quarter—deck, apparently bored for that purpose. The description indicates a man larger than life; touched by heaven’s bolt. Perhaps he even wants to be God. Ahab refuses to submit to any higher power and doesn’t worship or even acknowledge the superiority of forces beyond him.

Ahab himself is a fearless, brave and experienced captain, so he has a rich knowledge of sailing and owns superb skills about whaling, which makes him a well—known sailor. On board the Pequod, Ahab as the ship’s captain assumes the role of king or dictator that gives him the elevated status to fit this traditional view of the hero Melville himself wrote: men may seem detestable; men may have mean and meager faces; but man, in the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling such a grand and glowing. Indeed, all the ship’s commanders in the novel should examine in the light of Ahab’s character for using Ahab as the touchstone. Whatever power controls the universe, Ahab wants to attack it as he feels he has been attacked. The vastness of his objective sets Ahab apart from most tragic figures, as does the fact that, even with his dying breath, he refuses to repent for his actions. Despite Ahab’s apparent madness, he still seemed able to reason clearly. He carefully and methodically located the region of the sea that Moby Dick is most likely to be in (an almost impossible task, considering the size of the Earth’s Oceans). When he first set sail, Ahab’s original plan was to hunt only Moby Dick and ignore other whales. Once he realizes that his men will abandon him if they don’t make some sort of a profit while at sea, he encourages them to hunt other whales and boosts the morale of the crew. Ahab is an excellent leader and a man of great depth but few words. In chapter 36 we can see how he has led the men perfectly to the precise pitch of excitement that he desires.

2.2 A Selfish Devil

An archetypal character is a character who appears over and over in the legends, and who brings depth by drawing on your memories of the legends. In Moby Dick, we could see from the fact that captain Ahab’s name is taken from biblical King Ahab. This not only makes the symbolism of figures understood through the names displayed, but adds a religious atmosphere of the novel. Ahab’s name just what is said would “somehow prove prophetic” (Melville 96). The way that Melville endows the name of his hero with its symbolic meaning will let you think that captain Ahab will have something in common with King Ahab in the Bible. King Ahab, the seventh King of Israel in “First Kings”, commits crimes and offends the Lord. Simply speaking, he is arrogant and violates of God’s commandments repeatedly. In the eyes of God, he is an evil and heinous king, and finally dies of fighting with the Jewish king Sofa miserably. In the article, Captain Ahab is an emperor—like figure, arrogant with the enemies of God constantly and descends to hell. Both Ahabs are blasphemers. On the part of Captain Ahab, he is courting blasphemy through his quest to find Moby Dick and will suffer a tragic end because of his actions. With some hints, King Ahab’s end foreshadows fate of Captain Ahab. The Bible of the prototype for understanding the article plays a significant role. To some extent, Melville enters into the worlds of epic and Shakespearean tragedy by describing Captain Ahab as a biblical archetype.

In Moby Dick, Ahab, the man with one leg, is angry in that his pride is hurt and resolves to hunt the white whale to the kill. He cuts himself off from his wife and kids and stays away most of the time from his crew so as to avenge himself. After the loss of his leg in his encounter with he white whale, he holds God responsible for the presence of evil in the universe and is bent on killing the whale. (王蕾，刘著妍. 2007. P.61). He hangs a doubloon on mast as a reward for anyone who sights the whale first. The Pequod makes a good catch of whales but Ahab refuses to turn back until he has killed his enemy. He repeatedly refers to monomaniacal, which suggests he is driven insane by one goal. He hears of objection, being totally lost in his own impulse and his selfish desire. He is egocentric to such an extent that he starts to lose humanity,

and becomes disconnected with other people. His radical obsession with finding and killing the white whale known as Moby Dick causes Ishmael and others of the crew to become frightened at his abnormal behavior. He has a maniacal presence about him and would risk his life and the lives of his crewmen just to fulfill his mission demented revenge. What Ahab seeks is not the actual whale but a whale that stands for the ultimate mystery of the universe. This is shown in Captain Ahab’s rebellious struggle against the overwhelming mysterious vastness of the universe. But the superiorities contribute nothing to a meaningful life if his ardors sway from the truth. Ahab’s blind and purposeless fury of the whale eventually destroys himself and the crew except Ishmael. If Ahab had abandoned his goal, he would have lived a better life. Here Melville intends to tell us man can’t do whatever he wants and some things are simply beyond his power. The reader could really experience the insaneness of the voyage, and the cruelty of the mission that they have set out to accomplish.

Chapter III. The Destruction of Pequod

Named after a Native American tribe in Massachusetts that did not long survive the arrival of white men and thus memorializing extinction, the Pequod is a symbol of doom. It is painted a gloomy black and covered in whale teeth and bones, literally bristling with the mementos of violent death. It is, in fact, marked for death. Adorned like a primitive coffin, the Pequod becomes one. Melville uses the name to rename the whaling ship, symbolizing it is bound to perish. As Ishmael said, the crew did everything possible and worked hard through the endless sea, only to have access to their death. They tracked and chased to the Ends of the Earth as a result of searching for what destroyed them.

As an only survivor planned to tell the story, it predicts the miserable ending of the Pequod and all the crewmen. In the article, the Pequod represents the microcosm of human society and Americans’ soul. Melville expresses his themes by the struggle between the ship and the white whale.

3.1 The Microcosm of Human Society

In the 19th century, America was flourishing into an independent country. Historically it was time of westward and overseas expansions. (张伯香. 2006. P.399) Moby Dick is extensively concerned with several major dimensions of the American imperialistic vision such as the voyage of Pequod. To some degree, it stands for this spirit of expanding into the overseas. What is more, during the period, the Civil War broke out. It proved that most of Americans then were in dire straits, especially the Black. They were breathing in the heavy oppression of slavery and the most fundamental purpose was that they were opposed to the domination of White and that they would like to abolish slavery. Therefore although democracy became the ideal of the new nation, yet loneliness and self—destroyed individualism were the theme. The author understood it and expressed his opinion from the tragic ending of self—destruction in the search for the whale; the loss of faith and the sense of futility

and meaninglessness which characterizes modern life of the West are expressed thoroughly in the book.

From another point of view, the narrator Ishmael intends to escape from modern “civilization” society by going to the sea. In the opening of the novel, it begins with the famous statement by the book’s narrator “call me Ishmael”. The readers are informed that Ishmael is so tired of land life that he could not bear it any longer. The most effective way to escape it is to go to the sea, so he has the habit of going to sea whenever he starts to grow “hazy about the eyes”. He goes to sea as laborer, and as a simple sailor. He does so because he may be paid and it affords him wholesome exercise and pure sea air. From another perspective, Ishmael hints there is something wrong with our realistic life. “The sea is an archetypal symbol of the mystery of life and creation—birth, the flowing of time into eternity, and rebirth.” In Ishmael’s view, it is only through the sea that man can keep in touch with things of terminal truth; “in landlessness alone resides the highest truth, shore less, indefinite as God”, and thus it is better to die at sea than on land. Ishmael poses the idea that a certain class of persons could operate better on the sea than on land. Ishmael attributes this to a certain psychological attainment, claiming that truth belongs to sea for its indefinite quality and flexibility. In other words, compared to the more definite atmosphere of dry land, the sea represents a degree of mystery and abstraction. Furthermore, in contrast to the land, traveling on the sea could seize an opportunity to be confronted with the fundamentals of life itself. By setting a contrast between land and sea, Ishmael stresses the significance of the sea. The sea, as the opposite and expansion of the land, is “the image of the ungraspable phantom of life”, where man can get a glimpse into the truth of all things, so Ishmael’s going to the sea is his request for the mystery of the life.

3.2 The American’s Soul

As it is mentioned ahead, to Ahab, the White Whale is either an evil creature in itself or the agent of an evil force that controls the universe, or perhaps both. In fact,

an evil of symbolic meaning in White Whale also refers to defect or shortcoming in one’s soul. In a word, that is the good and evil aspects of human nature which is inner self. Those outside oneself are called objects, which are impervious to the desires or wills of men. For instance, the blind can see nothing but light does exist, the deaf can hear nothing but voice does exist, and the dumb can’t speak but spoken language does exist. Melville shows that evil exists in human nature. If human would like to root out evil, he would be destroyed by evil. The same is true with Captain Ahab’s fate. In a word, what is important is one’s attitude towards life. People who show negative attitude toward life are those who know what is right but do the other way round. The evil prevails over the good in their inner selves. They can’t stop themselves from pursuing the wrong thing. Just as the saying goes, the thing rightly done is always 10 times better than to do things right. If one wants to see the sunset, he has to go to the west. Otherwise he will never see it even he has made great efforts. Therefore this kind of people is doomed to live a meaningless and futile life even though they do fight fate. If the good prevails over the evil, one is living a meaningful and fruitful life.

According to the background of Melville writing, it was Transcendentalism that inspired many American writers to greatness. Writers such as Hawthorne and Melville—were influenced by many of its concepts. (童明. 2005. P.86). Transcendentalism has been defined philosophically as “the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses.”Transcendentalists highlight the positive aspect of nature and believe in the inherent goodness of humankind, but to Hawthorne and Melville, everyone is potentially a sinner, and great moral courage is therefore indispensable for the improvement of human nature. Emerson, the most representative Transcendentalist, tells us that transcendentalist must struggle with self—doubt. The problem is not in achieving a mystic transcendence that momentary sense of oneness like Ishmael’s mast—head reveries, but in living on after the experience, returning from ideality to actuality. Emerson’s advice to the transcendentalist who can’t and never will experience “continuous day” or Ahab’s longed—for “repose of if” is to find

a Quakerly contentment in waiting for the light. And this requires a perpetual balance between self—reliance and communality. Ishmael takes to sea democratically to confront his fear of nothingness just as Aha

b takes to sea autocratically to kill that fear in the form of the White Whale. The two approach the matter differently. Ahab’s approach to the problem of nothingness is denial. In “The Quarter Deck”, he rallies the crew by playing fast and loose with transcendental ideas, making the whale out to be a “pasteboard mask” or symbol of an evil and reasoning force. Ahab’s rhetori

c is ba

d transcendental thinking on two counts. In “Th

e Poet,”Emerson argues that we come closest to transcendence when we do what nature does. Since nature is our most immediate example o

f the creative force of Ideality, doin

g what nature does means creating, and what nature creates are palpable symbols of universal concepts. Thus to approac

h transcendence, we must create symbols. However Ahab attempts to transcend by breaking through and reducing symbols and does so assuming that destruction, not creativity, is the universal ideal. Ahab can appear to performing an act of self—discovery by cutting through nature’s surface in order to apprehend its ideal reality, but his method is destructive rather than re—creative. Melville loses no opportunity in his criticism of New England Transcendentalism. Constantly under his attack is its emphasis on individualism and over—soul. To say that the whole of Moby Dick is a negative reflection upon Transcendentalism is not in fact an exaggeration.

Conclusion

The story of Moby Dick begins with some character or problem and ends with a short epilogue. The writer lets the story rise and fall many times and often interrupts the narrative flow to reflect on subjects related to the whaling industry. Clearly it is an epic tale of the voyage of the whaling ship. It also can be read on different levels: an adventure story, a revenge story, a horror story, a nature story and so on. The distinctive feature of the book is symbolism. Symbols in literature are usually objects used to represent or suggest important concepts that inform and expand our appreciation of the book; furthermore these symbols make it more interesting to the reader by making connections from one idea to another. Moby Dick offers some of the most widely known symbols in American literature such as the symbols of isolation, monomania and duality.

Moby Dick has richness in various aspects, such as allegory, symbolism and theme which has had enduring value for generations. Its symbolism is vast and a romance of moral inquiry. Each of the main characters struggle with good and evil, with fate, with the conflict they see between God and nature. People must learn to establish harmonious relationships between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. However Melville overly exaggerates the arrangement of nature and animals’ magic; the development of science and technology and powers of destroying nature is undervalued then. With regards to all endeavor and actions of the conservation and salvation of whales nowadays, Melville may be unexpected.

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