Moby-Dick: Difference between revisions
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{{work}}
{{Infobox book
[[File:Wrong Hands Moby-Dick.jpg|thumb|300px|link=Wrong Hands|Now that we're caught up on [[Everybody Knows That|what everybody knows]], onward to the article.]]▼
| original title = Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
| image = Wrong Hands Moby-Dick.jpg
▲
| author = Herman Melville
| central theme = The dangers of obsession
| elevator pitch = A man infatuated with the sea enters in the tripulation of a ship whose captain is obsessed with the whale that ate his leg. [[It Gets Worse]].
| genre = Epic, Sea story
| publication date = October 18, 1851
| source page exists = yes
| wiki URL =
| wiki name =
}}
{{quote|''Call me Ishmael.''}}
Described by many as the greatest American novel, '''''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale''''', by [[Herman Melville]], is either a story about [[Animal Nemesis|the hunt of a wicked whale by a madman]] that [[Shown Their Work|shows Melville's work]], or [[Author Filibuster|an encyclopedia on whaling and cetology]] with a [[Framing Device]]. You choose.
Either way, the plot follows a man that, infatuated with the sea (apparently, it's a periodical thing), decides to go aboard a whaling ship to try out how whaling feels. He and his [[Noble Savage|newly-met best friend Queequeg]] go upon the ''Pequod'' under the command of the [[Determinator|monomaniac Captain Ahab]], and eventually get in the middle of his maniac hunt for Moby Dick, the eponymous "White Whale" that ate his leg. Tragedy ensues.
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''[[Moby Dick (film)|Moby Dick]]'' has been adapted to screen several times, the most famous version being with [[Gregory Peck]] as Ahab. [[Patrick Stewart]] was inspired to play the role following an allegorical comparison to Ahab in [[Star Trek: First Contact|one of his movies]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Achey Scars]]: Captain Ahab's lost leg, arguably.
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{{quote|''"He's killed himself," she cried. "It's unfort'nate stiggs done over again - there goes another counterpane - god pity his poor mother! - it will be the ruin of my house. Has the poor lad a sister? Where's that girl? - there, Betty, go to Snarles the Painter, and tell him to paint me a sign, with - "no suicides permitted here, and no smoking in the parlor;" - might as well kill both birds at once."''}}
* [[Author Filibuster]]: Melville looooooves whaling. They're the frontiersmen of the generation; the equivalent of cowboys and astronauts.
* [[Big Guy, Little Guy]]: Each Mate with each harpooner is this sort of pairing, Starbuck with Queequeg, Stubb with Tashtego, and Flask with Daggoo.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: {{spoiler|Queequeg's coffin.}}
* [[Determinator]]: Captain Ahab
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* [[Louis Cypher]]: Fedallah, possibly.
* [[Ludicrous Precision]]: The question of whether the whale's spout is water or vapour has lasted from the beginning of history down to "this blessed minute (fifteen and a quarter minutes past one o'clock P.M. of this sixteenth day of December, A.D. 1851)"
* [[Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane]]: Is Moby Dick a physical manifestation of nature's rage, or simply an overly-aggressive, larger-than-average sperm whale? For the most part, that's up to the reader's interpretation.
* [[Manly Men Can Hunt]]
* [[Medium Blending]]: Owing to the obvious Shakespearean influence on the novel, some of the chapters are written as a play script.
* [[The Mutiny]]: In Chapter 54, "The Town-Ho's Story".
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: Ahab is named after the cruel king whose reign is detailed in Kings 16:29 through 22:40 of [[The Bible]]. Ishmael comments on how unfortunate a man is to be saddled with such a name.
* [[No Man of Woman Born]]: Courtesy of Fedallah.
* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: Nobody knows just why or how the eponymous whale was named Moby Dick.
* [[Noodle Incident]]: "That deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa."
* [[Only Sane Man]]: Starbuck.
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{{reflist}}
{{The Big Read}}
[[Category:Literature of the 19th century]]
[[Category:Print Long Runners]]
[[Category:School Study Media]]
▲[[Category:Moby-Dick]]
▲[[Category:Literature]]
[[Category:The Great American Read]]
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