Moby Dick

In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the character of Captain Ahab is repeatedly referred to as a "monomaniac" (Melville Chapter 41). In other words, he is a man obsessively devoted to and possessed by a single idea -- to get revenge upon the white whale, Moby Dick. To some extent, Ahab views his long-sought encounter with the whale as his own personal fate: it is clear from Melville's depiction that no trials or tribulations undergone during the Pequod's journey would be capable of stopping Ahab's strange quest. Yet it is clear from Melville's novel that the hunt for Moby Dick is not something Ahab could undertake on his own -- it requires a whaling-ship and it requires a crew. As a result, Ahab's journey to find the white whale can be viewed as a depiction of society in microcosm -- the difficulties that he faces along the way are...
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