Characters in Moby Dick - IES Pedro Floriani 2011-12 - 1º Bacharelato

MOBY DICK

CHARACTERS

IES Pedro Floriani, 2011/12

Ishmael, Ahab, Queequeg (& Yojo) The mates The harpooners Peter Coffin

Ishmael introduces himself in the opening sentence of the novel with the well-known line Call me Ishmael.

Ishmael provides little about his personal background before his decision at the beginning of the novel to journey to Nantucket, Massachusetts, to enlist as a sailor on a whaler. There is evidence in the text to suggest that he was formerly a school-teacher who left that life of theory to pursue that more practical life at sea. At the beginning of the novel he is an experienced seaman who hasn't previously served on a whaler but in the merchant marine service.

His primary reason for going to sea, he suggests, is to break out of this depressive circle and obsession with death.

Related topics: Tolerance, fate, life and death.

He was the Captain of the Pequod. He was a tall and strong man. His face was wrinkled and he had a scar that ran from his forehead down his cheek and neck and disappeared under his collar. He was all dressed in black except for his white peg leg which was made of a whale's bone. He was obsessed with Moby Dick because in the past this white whale took his leg off and he wanted to revenge.

Related topics: Revenge, fate, life and death, blackness and whiteness.

Queequeg is native from Kokovoko, an island in South Pacific. He belongs to the royal family. Although he looks dangerous he actually is a good person.

Queequeg became Ishmael's best friend.

Yojo is Queequeg's little black idol. He keeps it in his pocket.

Yojo told him that the responsibility of choosing a ship was on Ishmael. He was a sign of Ishmael's religious tolerance. This was a breakthrough for that time, when people belonging to other religions were often killed.

Related topics: Tolerance, fate.

There is a hierarchy in the ship like in the Middle Ages:

Starbuck was a Quaker from Nantucket and a good, honest man. He was tall and quite thin, and really strong. If you looked into his eyes, you could see all the dangers he had faced in his life at sea.

Stubb was a cheerful man from Cape Cod who laughed at everything. Even when chasing a whale, he remained calm and relaxed. His pipe was never far from his lips and he kept a dozen of them near his hammock.

Flask, a short, robust man from Martha's Vineyard, for whom hunting whales was a big joke and the whale was just like an enormous water rat. Flask had fun chasing whales around the world.

The captain and each of the mates have their own harpooners: Fedallah is Ahab's personal harpooner.

Fedallah's origins are mysterious, and we know little more than he is a Persian fireworshipper. He is tall and dark and wears an old black Chinese-style jacket, black trousers and long white hair wound like a turban around his head.

Starbuck’s harpooner is Queequeg

Tashtego is a native American, from Martha's Vineyaard. Despite the racist stereotype behind assumption Tashtego's character also illustrates the frustrating illogic of racism and radical hyerarchies.

Dagoo is an African tribesman.

He is enormous, physically very powerful, and barely uncultured to the customs of the white Americans around him.

Starbuck: He is from Nantucket where the people live on whaling, so he needs to hunt whales to obtain money for the people in Nantucket, not for him.

Ahab: Moby Dick took off his legs, so he is obsessed with vengeance.

Ishmael: He feels attraction towards the whales and the sea. He wants to go to sea and kill whales because he thinks that it is another way to have an adventure.

Queequeg: He isn´t interested on whales. He is interested on white people.

The gold coin is a symbol of their opinions

SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS

Ahab is convinced that Fedallah is going to help him with his revenge on Moby Dick, but Fedallah dies on the first fight against Moby Dick.

Peter Coffin was the owner of the tavern The Spouter Inn. He is the innkeeper. Ishmael stays at that inn on his way to Nantucket.

He was funny and outgoing. A coffin is an object that we use to bury dead people, although in Nantucket it is a popular name.