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Yeah, Ishmael represents how humanity constantly wants to learn more.
yes I agree, these two characters might be the faces of two ways of getting over the chaotic aspect of the world: Science & Religion. This was an important aspect of Melville's internal struggle. The problem of morality lurked deeply within him and his worldview seemed to have taken a deeper existential turn with this book as well as his later ones such as in "Pierre, or the ambiguities"
After his last Meeting with Melville a few years after Moby-Dick, In 1856, Hawthorn wrote about him in his journal on this aspect and said: "Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything that lies beyond human ken, and informed me that he had "pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated"; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation; and, I think, will never rest until he gets hold of a definite belief. It is strange how he persists -- and has persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before -- in wondering to-and-fro over these deserts, as dismal and monotonous as the sand hills amid which we were sitting. He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other. If he were a religious man, he would be one of the most truly religious and reverential; he has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us." (http://www.melville.org/hawthrne.htm)
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Kate
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Jul 09, 2015 11:35AM
Yeah, Ishmael represents how humanity constantly wants to learn more.
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yes I agree, these two characters might be the faces of two ways of getting over the chaotic aspect of the world: Science & Religion. This was an important aspect of Melville's internal struggle. The problem of morality lurked deeply within him and his worldview seemed to have taken a deeper existential turn with this book as well as his later ones such as in "Pierre, or the ambiguities"After his last Meeting with Melville a few years after Moby-Dick, In 1856, Hawthorn wrote about him in his journal on this aspect and said: "Melville, as he always does, began to reason of Providence and futurity, and of everything that lies beyond human ken, and informed me that he had "pretty much made up his mind to be annihilated"; but still he does not seem to rest in that anticipation; and, I think, will never rest until he gets hold of a definite belief. It is strange how he persists -- and has persisted ever since I knew him, and probably long before -- in wondering to-and-fro over these deserts, as dismal and monotonous as the sand hills amid which we were sitting. He can neither believe, nor be comfortable in his unbelief; and he is too honest and courageous not to try to do one or the other. If he were a religious man, he would be one of the most truly religious and reverential; he has a very high and noble nature, and better worth immortality than most of us." (http://www.melville.org/hawthrne.htm)
