试论白鲸的多层象征意义

摘 要：赫尔曼·麦尔维尔的《白鲸》是世界文学长廊中的一颗璀璨明星，无数文学家，评论家写文章解读该作品，他们的切入点各不相同，而象征手法是其中重要一项，对于作品的理解起着十分重要的作用。本文剖析了作品中的人物亚哈，白鲸莫比·迪克，及航船裴廓德号及海洋的象征意义，和主题的象征意义，从而更加深刻的理解这一名著。

关 键 词：白鲸；象征意义；

《白鲸》是美国作家麦尔维尔发表于1851年的一部小说，在当时，没有引起人们的重视，甚至可以说受到了出奇的冷落。但是，到了20世纪30年代，人们才惊奇地发现，这是一部文学史上少有的杰作，它的深刻与伟大可以和任何一部名著相媲美。其实，《白鲸》的故事很简单：就是一条鲸鱼和一个船长的故事。莫比、迪克是一条凶猛无比的白鲸，它横行海上多年，曾使无数捕鲸船和水手命丧大海，成了许多航海者心中恐惧的妖魔；亚哈是一艘船的船长，在一次与白鲸的遭遇中，他被咬掉一条腿，为了复仇，他网罗了一群冒险者，开始在茫茫大海中搜捕白鲸行动。经过多年苦苦寻找，终于，找到了白鲸，经过六天六夜的激烈搏斗，虽然命中白鲸，可是，亚哈本人及其他水手、捕鲸船也都粉身碎骨，同归于尽。《白鲸》的确代表了梅尔维尔的艺术顶峰。《白鲸》是一部独具魅力的作品，小说的风格奇异多变，主题多解，最主要的是作者成功地运用了19世纪美国小说最多用的象征手法。

一、白鲸奠比·迪克的象征意义

莫比·迪克是一条带有传奇色彩的白色巨鲸，小说就以这条巨鲸的名字命名。“异教徒水手”把它收稿当成海怪，疯子迦百列把它当成镇教神的化身，亚哈把它当作自己的仇敌，以实玛利则认为它代表着残酷的空虚和宇宙的浩阔。自鲸莫比·迪克天生使人畏惧，它常常在大海里翻腾，施展出可怕的暴力，它曾使无数的捕鲸者藏身大海。它无处不在，并且会在同一时间里出现在不同的地方。人们的铁叉对它毫无伤害，它身上插遍了铁枪头，却还能安然无恙地游来游去。“白鲸”在这里成了一种超然的对人怀有敌意而又难以征服的神秘力量，进而它又被人们理解为世间一切“恶”的化身，凡是一切最使人狂怒和痛苦的事情，一切足以搅起事务的残渣的东西，一切附有恶念的真理，一切使人焦头烂额的东西，一切有关生命思想的额神秘而又不可思议的鬼神邪说，一切的邪恶等等，都是莫比·迪克的明显化身。若从社会政治的角度去理解和阐释白鲸的象征意义，这白鲸在一定程度上可以说是象征着那庞大的资本主义生产过程中与生产者相对立的那种力量。正如批评家安妮特·鲁宾斯坦所指出的那样：“由于要在船上提取并储存油脂，捕鲸船实际上就成为一座流动的工厂。它是一种将现代企业与极权的君主制相结合的组织形式；”白鲸这个尚不被理解而又威力无穷的怪物，实际上是作者对资本主义强大的生产力既感到不可理解又感到恐惧不安的心理的真实反映。也表现出他对处在这一变动时代的人类命运的忧患意识以及他们处境的深切同情。白鲸同时又是上帝神力的象征，“在它那硕大柔和的头顶，由于它那无法言传的沉思默想而挂着一顶雾气重重的华盖，而这种雾气??你有时看得到又被??彩虹耀得光辉灿烂，仿佛上天已经批准了它的思想似的。”白鲸还是大自然的化身。这样，小说的象征意义在于表明：人类如果一无止境地疯狂掠夺大自然，必将被大自然所埋葬。白鲸的象征意义究竟是什么?这就像白鲸身上那“雪白的异常的前额，”“金字塔似的白色背峰”一样叫人难以琢磨，它既代表着高洁安宁，又代表着恐怖邪恶，或者它干脆就是矛盾冲突的化身。

二、船长亚哈的象征意义

亚哈船长是白鲸的对立面，他又象征着什么呢?首先，亚哈为了报私仇，一意孤行，无视船东们的利益，置船员们的生死于不顾，并且，他充分利用自己作为船长的职权，对水手们进行威逼利诱，最后使所有船员(一人除外)都葬身海底。这时，亚哈成了比白鲸还要邪恶的魔王。但是同时，亚哈又是一个敢于反抗神明，反对习俗常规，坚毅无畏，百折不回，英勇善战，经验丰富的船长。他跟可怕的大海斗争了四十年，他遭受过一次又一次的挫折，但是他永远不会被击败。这也正如海明威的《老人与海》中圣地亚戈所说的：人不是为失败而生的，一个男子汉可以被消灭，不能被打败。 作品中亚哈自己也印证了这句话：“我要走遍合恩角??走遍挪威的旋涡流，走遍地狱的火坑去追击到它后，这才散手。”表面上，亚哈追击的是白鲸，但更深层次上，它要打败的是一种邪恶的化身。此时亚哈成了人类挑战自然，战胜自的代表。另外，亚哈还代表着资本主义大生产方式，代表着那些不顾一切掠夺大自然的狂徒。所以，亚哈的象征意义和白鲸一样，不是唯一的或者绝对的，其性格是多重的，矛盾的，其象征意义也是复杂的，难以把握的。在它身上，善与恶并存，美与丑共在。它既是害人者，也是受害者，它对大自然的反叛必然招致灭亡，而社会从一开始就已使亚哈成了精神上，肉体上的受害者和畸形人。他自杀性的自我表现和反叛社会的疯狂行为，原本是社会对他彻底孤立的必然结果。亚哈的悲剧具有及其深刻而又恢弘的意义。

三、航船裴阔德号和海洋的象征意义

在《白鲸》中，裴阔德号航船是来自陆地的力量，海洋则代表着自然，他们之间的对立比较也具有明显的象征意义：航船裴阔德代表的陆地是有限的，但是相对海洋来说它是安逸舒适的；而海洋是元边无际，变幻莫测的，它象征着凶险。同时水是生命之源，因此海洋在这里也代表着深奥难测

的命运。船与海代表着人类所必须面对的生活，象征着必须要面对人生途中的凶险，人们才能获得对生活的充分理解。陆地的封闭自足需要打破，到海洋上冒险求知，遵循自然规律，人们才能都把握命运。只有在精神上，在理智上冲出有限的疆界人们才能获得新知；但是同时，出海冒险又剥夺了人生的安乐。在作品中，麦尔维尔不惜点穿事物的象征意义，让读者不得不面对小说的深层寓意：“海洋与陆地有什么区别吗?为什么前者的奇迹必能给后者带来好运呢?当难以想象的恐怖降临到希伯莱人身上的时候，可拉一伙人脚下富有魔力的地面就张开大嘴，把他们给永远吞噬了；那富有生命的海洋天天都以同样的方式把船只和水手给吞没了。”陆地虽然安逸，但是却被恐惧包围；海洋虽然凶险，但人们却可以找到奇迹。这也许就是海洋与陆地被赋予的意义。

四、主题的象征意义

《白鲸》的主题具有多重而深刻的象征意义，要看我们对于白鲸和亚哈的理解而定。如果说白鲸是邪恶的象征，那么此时，亚哈就是人类的英雄，他追击自鲸的过程就是人类对于邪恶的挑战，对于厄运的不屈服。而亚哈的永不放弃也正是人类面对邪恶时，所具有的不屈的斗争精神的体现。如果说白鲸是大自然的象征，而亚哈则代表着黑暗的资本主义，那么此时亚哈对于白鲸的追击就是人类无节制掠夺大自然的过程，他及其船员最后的死亡命运就是大自然的复仇。人虽然可以观察世界，或者对世界具有一定的影响力量，但是从根本上说，他不能左右或征服自然。人只要不冒失地自取灭亡，大自然便乐于让他平静地生活。现阶段最主要有这两种理解。

《自鲸》经过半个多世纪的被湮没之后终于成了世界上最伟大的小说之一。因为我们面对着更加复杂，更加无法把握，无法逃避的世界，我们就更能体味到《白鲸》的象征意义和这部小说的价值。就像任何一部真正的艺术作品一样，《白鲸》散发着象征与寓言的意味。这些象征手法贯穿小说始终，它们像闪烁着寓意与思想、哲理的光链，映现出作品的题旨与美学价值。这些象征手法开掘、深化了作品的主体意蕴，充实、升华了作品的思想。

参考文献

[1]曹庸译．白鲸[M]．上海：上海译文出版社，1984．

[2]李希曾.《白鲸》的象征意义

[3]胡宗锋编.英美文学精要问答 修订版.西北大学出版社,19xx年04月第1版.

[4]郑克鲁主编.外国文学史.北京：高等教育出版社，20xx年6月

[5]田 芳.论赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的《白鲸》中的象征艺术

 

第二篇：论麦尔维尔《白鲸》中的象征意义

本科生毕业论文（设计）

本科毕业论文（设计）

题 目 论麦尔维尔《白鲸》中的象征意义

院 系 外国语学院

专 业 英语

申请学位 文学 学士学位

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Acknowledgements

My special thanks go to Master Liu Yuling for her consent to be my supervisor, which is a great encouragement to me, for her insightful advice and above all careful scrutiny of both the outline and the draft in materializing the present thesis. Furthermore, Professor Liu’s scrupulous attitude in doing research and teaching and her kindness to students impress me deeply, which will benefit me for my whole life.

I also wish to express my gratitude to teacher Zhang Yalin, and teacher Gao Guifang, whose lectures enhanced my interest in British and American literature as well as widened my academic view.

I owe a particular debt of gratitude to my family members who support me all the time with their love. I am also indebted to my dear classmates, who have carried on subsequent discussions with me and sparked me to my thesis.

Only with the help of so many people can this thesis be made possible. Surely the remaining faults in this thesis are entirely mine.

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On the Symbolic Meaning in Melville’s Moby Dick

Abstract: Herman Melville is now recognized as one of the greatest writers of the 19th century and his masterpiece Moby Dick is regarded as a classical novel in the history of American literature. The book tells the story of Captain Ahab’s crazy chase about a white whale Moby Dick who has torn off one of his legs. One of the striking traits of Moby Dick is the author’s use of symbolism to express his thoughts and opinions, which is one of the reasons for its popularity. The book is highly symbolic. Almost everything, from typical characters to natural landscapes, mentioned has its symbolic meaning. Therefore, it is quite necessary to analyze the symbolic meaning of the novel.

The researches on its symbolic meaning are enduring, but these analyses are scattered over. On the basis of previous researches, the thesis provides a systematic analysis on the symbolic meaning of the novel from the aspects of its themes and two main clues. It firstly analyzes the symbolic meaning of its two main themes: revenge, human and nature, and then analyzes the symbolic meaning of the main characters and main images mentioned in its two main clues separately.

Key words: symbolic meaning; Moby Dick; themes; clues

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论麦尔维尔《白鲸》中的象征意义

学生姓名 王洪青 指导教师 刘玉玲

摘要：赫尔曼·梅尔维尔现在被公认为是十九世纪最伟大的作家之一， 他的代表作《白鲸》是美国文学史上的一部经典之作。 作品讲述了亚哈伯船长对一条曾经咬掉他一条腿的叫做莫比.迪克的白鲸的疯狂追击。《白鲸》的独到之处在于整部作品娴熟的用象征手法来表达作者的思想和见解。而且《白鲸》在美国受到好评的原因之一就是象征手法的广泛应用。这本书极具象征意义。 从典型的人物到自然景观，小说中出现的任何事物都有其象征意义。 因此， 对小说的象征意义进行分析是非常必要的。

评论家们对《白鲸》象征意义的研究经久不衰，但是这些研究都比较分散。 本文在已有研究的基础上从小说的主题和线索两个方面入手对小说的象征意义进行了比较系统的分析。 文章首先分析了小说的两个主题：复仇以及人与自然的象征意义。 然后分别分析了小说的两条主要线索中涉及到的主要人物及意象的象征意义。

关键词：象征意义； 《白鲸》； 主题； 线索

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements......................................................................................................... i Abstract in English ........................................................................................................ ii Abstract in Chinese ....................................................................................................... iii Table of contents ........................................................................................................... iv

Ⅰ Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1

Ⅱ Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 1

Ⅲ Symbolic Meaning of the Themes ............................................................................. 3

3.1 Symbolic meaning of revenge .......................................................................... 3

3.2 Symbolic meaning of human and nature .......................................................... 5

Ⅳ Symbolic Meaning of two Main Clues ...................................................................... 6

4.1 Ahab and Moby Dick ........................................................................................ 6

4.1.1 Symbolic meaning of Ahab ..................................................................... 6

4.1.2 Symbolic meaning of Moby Dick ............................................................ 7

4.1.3 Symbolic meaning of white ..................................................................... 9

4.2 Ishmael and the hunting .................................................................................. 10

4.2.1 Symbolic meaning of Ishmael ................................................................11

4.2.2 Symbolic meaning of Pequod................................................................ 12

4.2.3 Symbolic meaning of the hunting.......................................................... 13

4.2.4 Symbolic meaning of the sea................................................................. 14

Ⅴ Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 15

Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 16

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Ⅰ Introduction

Herman Melville is now openly recognized as one of the greatest writers in the 19th century American literary history, in particular for his masterpiece Moby Dick, a great book with heart-shaking whaling experience, philosophical meditation of realism and fantasy, vested with the poetic coloring of romance. However, in his lifetime, Melville never achieved the recognition until the 1920s when “Melville Revival” was launched after more than thirty years of silence and Melville established himself as a great master of art. From then on, many reviews on this book from different perspectives appeared, such as from the perspective of psychology to disclose man’s psychic confusion exhibited as the monomaniac syndrome of Ahab in the 1940s; of problems of identity, race, and sexual innuendoes in this novel in 1970s; of classic American themes, such as religion, fate, and economic expansion, as well as a radically experimental anachronism in modern times and so on. Reviews and comments on Moby Dick have continued to increase in the last two decades, especially in articles and essays. The book has been read as myth, epic, political allegory, psychological document, philosophical document, and so on.

One of the striking traits of Moby Dick is Melville’s use of symbolism to express his thoughts and his understanding of the whole world. Throughout the novel, we may notice that almost everything described in it has its symbolic meaning. The readers are often confused by the book’s symbolism and fail to grasp Melville’s complex view of the world. In recent years, scholars devoted themselves to the studies on Moby Dick from various aspects and the research on its symbolic meaning is enduring. The symbolic meaning of Moby Dick has been analyzed from various perspectives, but they are all scattered over. In this thesis, I will give a systematic, specific, and overall analysis of the symbolic meaning of this book from the aspects of its themes and two main clues. And the reader will get a further understanding of its symbolic meaning.

Ⅱ Literature Review

There is no doubt that Herman Melville’s (1819-1891) longest novel Moby Dick is one of the great masterpieces of fiction in the nineteenth-century American literature history, for it is “not only a very big book; it is also a peculiarly full and rich one, and from 4

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the very opening it conveys a sense of abundance, of high creative power, that exhilarates and enlarges the imagination.”(Richard Chase, 1962:39) The novel is generally regarded as an encyclopedia of many things: history, religion, philosophy and so on, in addition to a detailed account of human beings’ encroachment on nature.

Like any great masterpiece, Moby Dick cannot be reduced to any single interpretation. From the early critical reception to the modern criticism, Moby Dick has been studied in various perspectives by Melville scholars due to its significance in Melville’s literary career and its rich implications. Moby Dick was first published in London in 1851 and it was republished as Moby Dick, or The Whale in New York. In England, the attitudes of the critics towards it were various, but the general tone of the reviews ranged from indifference to hostility. As time passed by, the book was almost forgotten by the critics and readers as Melville’s fame gradually declined. Moby Dick was not recognized by the general public until the 1920s. From then on, many reviews on this book from different perspectives appeared. In English and American critical circles, throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the focus of literary studies on Moby Dick ranged among the issues of race, class, culture, and gender.

Although few books dedicated to the analysis of symbolism in Moby Dick can be found, there are pieces of analyses dealing with the topic. Mukhtar Ali Isani wrote an article about the fire symbolism; Chase, Richard pointed out in his The American Novel and Its Tradition that the White Whale hints various meanings and emphasized that it is the symbol of nature. When we come to the researches of Moby Dick in China, what we may find is that by December 2007, there are 92 essays commenting on Moby Dick in CNKI (China’s National Knowledge Infrastructures), including 77 periodical articles and 15 M.A. dissertations. And some of them refer to its symbolic meaning. Chen Qiuhong in his Cultural Interpretation of the Symbolic Meaning of Moby Dick said that from the point of nature, Moby Dick was nature itself; and in terms of social politics it was the capitalist system; and it was the incarnation of evil if we analyze it from the point of good and evil. There has been a general increase in the number of articles on Melville’s Moby Dick since the year 2000. Only five periodical articles were published in 2000. The number fluctuated slightly in the ensuing years, but the average number per year remained 5. 5

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However, 2006 and 2007 witnessed a surprising leap in Moby Dick research. The sudden rise was perhaps due to the fact that in the new century more and more modern theories and academic perspectives, especially eco-criticism has been introduced to China. Among the 37 periodical articles, 15 were written from the perspectives of eco-criticism. Meanwhile, the number of M.A. dissertations has undergone a steady increase. In general, the startling growth in the number of Moby Dick articles proves that Moby Dick has become a research focus, attracting more and more researchers to join in the hot debate. In this thesis, I will give a detailed analysis of the symbolic meaning of this book from the aspect of its themes and two main clues.

Ⅲ Symbolic Meaning of the Themes

The novel Moby Dick is now openly recognized as one of the greatest novels of the 19th century American literature history. And it is regarded as a masterpiece of symbolism, everything mentioned in it has its symbolic meaning. The novel contains mainly two different themes, one is revenge, and the other is human and nature. And each of them has its own symbolic meaning. The following is the detailed analysis of their symbolic meanings.

3.1 Symbolic meaning of revenge

Revenge is one of the most prominent and important themes of Moby Dick. It tells the story of Captain Ahab’s revenge toward Moby Dick. And his ruthless revenge makes the White Whale have no choice but to revenge back. At last, Moby Dick gets hurt seriously and makes all the whalers on board get drowned, except one Ishmael, who survives to tell the story. Of course, except this kind of revenge there are also interludes about other revenges. And the theme revenge conveys profound meaning.

Ahab has worked on whale fishery for over 40 years. Unluckily, during a voyage, one of his legs is torn off by Moby Dick. This evokes his strong desire for revenge. And it is under this desire that he boards Pequod and begins his way for revenge. However, if he thinks twice about it at that moment, there are other choices. He could abandon whaling and return to the land to enjoy his old age. Or he could accept it peacefully as others and go on with his professions of whaling. Death is unavoidable to people who works on the sea 6

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all the year round, and something like what happened to Ahab is common. To some degree, however, Ahab is a little luckier than others, but unlike them he chooses to revenge. From this point of view, his choice of revenge is his own willing, it is out of his own character and his revenge is subjective.

In comparison with the subjective revenge of human, the Whale’s revenge to human is passive. It is a kind of self-defense that it has to take due to people’s destruction to it. If we trace back to the root of hatred, it is human who commits mistakes first, and then the Whale revenges back to human beings. From this point of view, human doesn’t have the right to revenge. It is because of human’s hunt of whales at random that leads to the loss of Ahab’s leg. We human beings have a long history of whaling, and the scale is becoming larger and larger, and more and more people are going to work on it. This means that more and more whales are going to be killed and every progress and victory of human beings on whaling means more whales have been killed. From this point of view, there are no reasons for human beings to revenge.

Actually, the inhumanity of human beings toward whales is beyond our imagination. Ishmael also acknowledged this in the novel. The scenes that people dissect whales violently can prove it. In the novel the whale makes itself in dilemma just because it has torn off Ahab’s leg. But we couldn’t tell how many whales Ahab has killed. Even Moby Dick itself has encountered numerous chases by Ahab and his colleagues. Even though, the Whale doesn’t take action to revenge toward people initiatively, but hides away and hopes to escape from people’s chase. But Ahab spares no effort to chase it and take advantage of every opportunity to kill it. It is in desperate that it chooses to fight back and revenge. At last it destroys Pequod and all the people on it except Ishmael.

Besides the revenge between Ahab and Moby Dick, there is also the interlude about the revenge between human beings in chapter 54, “The Town-Ho's Story”. The chief officer and a sailor on the ship decide to revenge each other because of some trifles. The chief officer does harm to the sailor by the right of his authority, and the sailor would let the ship sink rather than cooperate with the chief officer to avoid it. At the critical moment of chasing Moby Dick the two still can not work together because of the hatred in their minds. Thus the White Whale runs away and the chief officer gets killed by Moby Dick.

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From the analysis above we can see that each kind of revenge leads to a tragic end. Thus we could draw the conclusion that the theme revenge symbolizes that we human beings should be kind, tolerant and try to live in harmony with each other and also with other species. Otherwise the end will be tragic and all of us will be the victims.

3.2 Symbolic meaning of human and nature

Another important theme of Moby Dick is the relationship between human and nature. But what is the relationship between man and nature? Can they both survive, or does one have to give way to the other? These fundamental questions have been constantly asked by ecologists as well as probed into by eco-literature.

In Melville’s time, most people thought man could do anything to nature. But Melville holds different view about the relationship between man and nature and he prophetically demonstrates that human beings’ greedy plundering of nature will unavoidably lead to a tragic end. In the eyes of Melville, nature stands for the unknowable, paradoxical power that fights against human beings indifferently. Any subjective perception and effort to understand it is in vain under its changeable power. Every figure in Moby Dick has re-estimated himself and his own social position. Ishmael, Ahab and Pipe, these three representatives have different understandings, methods and attitudes to acknowledge the world. But none of them can get a right understanding. In their explorations of the world they all failed.

The author gathered people of different races and beliefs together on a ship and gave an intensive description of them. The three leading characters in the novel have different attitudes toward nature, thus when the ship sank their destinies were entirely different. The Whale to Ahab is the incarnation of evil, because the whale has made him lost one leg. His dignity is violated, and his purpose is to seek the Whale for revenge. Ishmael is the only one who gets salvation in the novel. The reasons for his salvation are his fraternity, the balance and tranquility of his heart and the divine intuition derived from the innermost of humanity.

Thus we draw the symbolized meaning that nature and humans can be in harmony with each other and they both are co-existent and interdependent on each other. Through 8

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the experience of Ishmael, who is not only a witness to his own thoughts, but also a witness to the actions of Captain Ahab and of the other crew on Pequod, the novel Moby-Dick reflects this kind of associating and coexisting relationship between nature and human in an artistic way.

Without human invasion, the whales live peacefully and happily in the sea. Ishmael recognizes the loveliness and helplessness of the whales in Moby Dick. When Moby Dick was first encountered, he was in no flurry, but quietly gliding through the sea. The beautiful and grand scene leaves a deep impression on Ishmael and the readers that man and nature can be in harmony.

Ⅳ Symbolic Meaning of two Main Clues

The story in the novel is narrated mainly through two different clues. The first one is made up of Ahab and Moby Dick. The second one is made up of Ishmael and the hunting. Just like its themes, the images mentioned in the clues also have their own symbolic meanings.

4.1 Ahab and Moby Dick

The novel tells the story about Captain Ahab’s chase of Moby Dick. Thus one of the two main clues is made up of Ahab and Moby Dick. As to the White Whale we should not ignore its color. Therefore this part is about the symbolic meaning of Ahab, Moby Dick and the whale’s color, white.

4.1.1 Symbolic meaning of Ahab

The symbolic meaning contained in the image Ahab is abstruse and various. A contradiction of multi-sided temperament, he is named after King Ahab, a heinous king of Israel in the Bible. The name symbolizes maliciousness and vengefulness. He violates the Christian commandment “Arrogant” and applies the carrot and stick to the crew. He betrays his mission of whaling and getting the fish oil and is obsessive in his own vengeance. He takes his own course, ignores the profit of his owners; disregards the safety of the crew and finally makes almost all the crew drowned in the sea. From this angle, he is the symbol of an authentic tyrant and the symbol of an evil, and also the symbol of evil and dark in human consciousness. From another angel, Ahab is willing to abandon the easy life 9

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and goes to the sea for adventure. His purpose is to chase the whale for vengeance on surface, but actually is the reconstruction of himself and the pursuit of the ease and freedom of soul. His followers’ aim is to get rid of the tiresome life and regain the meaning of life. People imprisoned by materialism are losing their spirit for the ultimate truth and they are also losing the pleasure of spiritual life. But the boundless sea, no matter calm or stormy, can always evoke infinite reverie and the primitive vitality in people. What is more important is that he can help the crew get rid of the dilemma of life on the land temporarily, although he can’t change their situation thoroughly.

As for his courage to fight with the evil, challenge destiny and revolt the gods, he is the symbol of people’s reaction toward destiny. As the rebel in the novel he is not superstitious and doesn’t believe gods but he has the heroic spirit of “Dare to defy the will of God’’ like gods. He has divine ability, rich knowledge of voyage and skills of the whaling. Facing the whale which is the incarnation of the God, he keeps the dignity of human inviolably. Although he did not win this fight, his spirit was unconquerable. He is like Prometheus who defied God to steal fire from the Heaven for human and received the torment willingly; Cain under the pen of Byron; Satan and Samson of Byron. He is more like the tough man Santiago in The Old Man and Sea who is tiresome but can not be defeated. From this angle, he is the true hero of human. In short, Ahab is the figure who is a mixture of evil and good, and symbolizes various meanings.

4.1.2 Symbolic meaning of Moby Dick

The white whale Moby Dick is obviously the most important symbol in the novel. “As a symbol, the whale is endlessly suggestive of meanings. It is as significant and manifold as Nature herself…..Like nature the whale is paradoxically benign and malevolent, nourishing and destructive’’. (Chase, 1957:110) Everyone is searching for the symbolic meaning of the White Whale. Moby Dick and everyone are trying to explain their own understanding of it in different ways. Characters like Stub and Flask measure it by monetary value. In Ahab’s eyes, Moby Dick is an incarnation of evil which he feels a compulsion to destroy. In taking revenge on the Whale, he himself becomes a real monomaniac evil. However, the Whale holds different meanings for Ishmael. Ambiguous as it is, the meaning of the Whale is to be found most explicitly stated in chapter “The 10

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Whiteness of the Whale”. It is set in contrast with Ahab’s viewpoint which has been stated in the previous chapter. For Ishmael, the Whale is complicated and mysterious with an elusive quality. It represents many conflicting meanings: purity, beauty, and innocence on the one hand; evil, terror and death on the other hand. Therefore, the meaning of the Whale varies if we see it in different circumstances and from different perspectives. Nevertheless, one thing is certain: we cannot simply regard the White Whale as a symbol of total evil as some critics do nowadays, otherwise we will repeat Ahab's mistake.

In D. H. Lawrence's eyes, "he (the Whale) is warm-blooded and loveable... He is not wicked. He doesn't bite". Lawrence continues to point out what the Whale represents. “He is the deepest blood-being of the white race; he is our deepest blood-nature.… Our blood-consciousness sapped by a parasitic mental or ideal consciousness.” (Lawrence, 1984: 586-587) D. H. Lawrence holds that we have blood-consciousness and mind-consciousness. The blood is the substance of the soul, and of the deepest consciousness. It is by blood that we are, and it is by the heart and liver that we live and move and have our being. The blood also thinks, inside a man, darkly and ponderously. Mind-consciousness extinguishes blood-consciousness, and consumes the blood. At present the mind-consciousness and the so-called spirit triumphs. In America, nobody does anything from the blood. It is always from the nerves, if not from the mind. The blood is chemically reduced by the nerves, in American activity. (Lawrence, 1961:188)

In Lawrence's eyes, the symbolic meaning of Moby Dick is presented through the presentation of Ahab. The monomania of the mind is exemplified in Ahab and Lawrence's comment seems to justify Ahab's monomaniac revenge against the Whale: in Ahab's eyes, the Whale is not only the dumb animal that has torn off his leg, but also his own blood-nature that he has to destroy in order to be conformed to this mechanized world. However, Ahab was not such a ruthless beast-machine in the past. Peleg, the ship's old chief-mate tells Ishmael that Captain Ahab is a queer man, but a good one, a grand, ungodly, god-like man. He is an uncommonly brave man. Every time when the ship is in the danger of sinking, he thinks about how to save all hands, how to rig jury-masts and how to get into the nearest port. But now what a chilling machine has Ahab become! Not to mention his crew, whom he treats like dirt, just look what changes have happened to him. 11

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The pipe, his only earthly pleasure, he tosses it into the sea. The pipe is a symbol of peace of mind and spiritual quiet, but this smoking no longer soothes. In the "Sunset" chapter, he addresses a soliloquy to the setting sun and describes himself as cut off from nature and from human or natural comforts. He makes a self-analysis “My brain seems to beat against the solid metal; aye, steel skull, mine... Gifted with the high perception, I lack the low, enjoying power; damned, most subtly and most malignantly!” (Melville, 1984: 160)

In this self-analysis, Ahab reveals himself as a mechanized man whose brain is made of steel. It can be said that as an ordinary human being with blood-nature, Ahab is dead. He is surely unable to respond to the natural beauty. As the self-analysis continues later in the chapter we find that his soul, or rather, his will is grooved to run on the iron railway to a fixed purpose, never to be swerved from that. Without blood-instinct, he can only act like an electrified machine, running on and on. By killing the Whale, he kills his own vitality, too. What he has to do is to follow the mechanical, destructive path to his final destiny. Kerry in his discussion of Ahab's problem implies at a prescription "a way out of Ahab's psychological state would be through the recovery of the ability to feel part of the human and natural world". (Kerry, 1986: 68)

Therefore, the Whale, as the most important image in the novel, symbolizes man's blood-nature that man tries to kill in himself.

4.1.3 Symbolic meaning of white

Originally, color only refers to the quality of objects which allows the eyes to see the difference between them, such as a red flower and a blue flower, and has nothing to do with happiness or anger, calmness or surprise. But once polished by human experience, colors can be symbols of some particular motions. In Moby Dick, the abounding colors are displayed as the symbols to imply some emotions. And white is the most obvious color to brighten the pages and reveal the author's dilemma.

The white in the novel symbolizes something malevolent. The whiteness itself signifies the threat of death. The white bear of the poles, the white shark of the tropics, the white shroud, the pallor of leprosy, the ghastly whiteness, all these things are analogized to imply the physical death and heighten the terror comes from the cold hue. Among all the whales in the ocean, there is one special White Whale who is the enemy of Captain Ahab. 12

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The appearance of Moby Dick also distinguishes himself from other whales: the vast white wrinkled forehead, the high dazzling "pyramidical" white hump, and long crooked rows of white, glistening teeth. All these prominent features can strike the readers the imagination of might and horror. On a previous voyage, Ahab and the White Whale had met and fought. The Whale had suddenly swept his sickle-shaped lower jaw beneath him and reaped away Ahab’s leg which becomes the beginning of Ahab’s hatred. In this chapter, white, says Melville, has hundreds of wicked mythological allusions. It stirs up more affright and panic to the soul than the redness in blood.

Melville may possibly think that the horrifying effect is not enough. Rather than makes the whiteness into the simple allegory of death, he pushes the symbol of the whiteness further into its ultimate meaning that the whiteness is an absence of color. White leads to an appalled and panic sensation towards the unknowable. Anyone trapped in the white world is tormented by the terror and hollowness of the soul. Melville uses metaphors to uncover the dread side of the whiteness: the hideous whiteness of sea at midnight to a lonely mariner, the inhuman solitude of the unbounded snow-covered mountain to a backwoodsman. The white world is full of an impenetrable and unsubstantial mystery. Before the absence of color, the man is “a vacated thing, a formless somnambulistic being, a ray of living light, to be sure, but without an object to color, and therefore a blankness in itself "(Melville, Moby Dick, 2:98.) Confronted with the colorless world, the man appears insignificant and slight, and his life seems feeble and void. He has no courage to fight back, and no ability to control his destiny. And furthermore, his soul is helpless and numb before the world.

4.2 Ishmael and the hunting

Ishmael is the narrator of the story, and the hunting is narrated by him. Thus they two constitute another clue of the novel. The hunting is taken place on the sea and one of the indispensable tools of hunting is the ship Pequod. Therefore, besides the symbolic meanings of Ishmael and the hunting, the symbolic meanings of Peqoud and the sea are included in this part.

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4.2.1 Symbolic meaning of Ishmael

Ishmael is one of the sailors and the only survivor on the ship Pequod, and he is also the narrator of the story. The name Ishmael which comes from The Old Testament of the Bible, as we all know, casts strong symbolic meaning. Sarah, wife of Abraham, was barren so she made Hagar, her maid servant, to be the concubine of her husband. Hagar born Ishmael, but later Sarah also born her own son named Issac. In order to let her own son Issac to monopolize the right of inheritance, Sarah persuaded Abraham to chase away Hagar and Ishmael so as that Ishmael became a foundling. From then on, the name has come to symbolize orphan, exiles, and social outcasts. Thus the name symbolizes that Ishmael is different from his shipmates and he is an outsider of the story. In the opening paragraph of the book, Ishmael tells the reader that he has turned to the sea out of a feeling of alienation from human society. In the last line of the book, Ishmael also refers to himself symbolically as an orphan. In Moby Dick we can find that Ishmael is not only a fugitive of the physical world but also a fugitive of spirit, searching for the true meaning of life.

At the very beginning Ishmael was totally an outsider, but after a period of time Ahab altered him from an industrious and integrity man to a crazy and mean bigwig. Thus Ishmael is regarded as a humble servant and accomplice of a seemingly ambitious but crazy man. To some degree, Ishmael feels pity for nature, to be more exactly, for Moby Dick. However, he is never ab1e to get rid of the contro11ing of evi1 powers. He is never able to change the wicked intention of Ahab. In this fiction, Ishmael is never a merely caiquejee, but a dimensional wise man. Ishmael sees his shipmates as archetypes of human nature and society, and tells his story in detail. In the early stage of this story, Ishmael acted as a humble outsider to describe the bloody and fierce hunting of a gigantic whale. Although he spares no effort to get away from the bloody hunting, he becomes a killer himself. At the meantime, Ishmael goes out of his way to illustrate the azure of the endless sea and everything of whale character at great length. He is solitary and single to wake up the respect and worship that people should have toward the nature. Through those troublesome and detailed researches of the whale, Ishmael came to realize that it is incumbent on human beings to respect the whale for their exhaustible vitality. Furthermore, man should rebuild the harmonious relationship with the whale, as it were, with the entire 14

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nature. But in reality, all the harmony was replaced by bloody and fierce killing. Ishmael began his voyage out of the simple fancy or attraction of the mysterious sea. But when he saw streams of mariners in the harbor, an inner lure of conquer arose in him. When he came to know that Ahab’s aim is to take revenge on Moby Dick instead of making profits, he rose to say “no” at once. Later he didn’t manage to betray Ahab, all he could do is to obey his irrational orders.

Thus from this point of view we can say that Ishmael presents the tragedy between human and nature, and symbolizes the ecological tragedy of nature.

4.2.2 Symbolic meaning of Pequod

Pequod is the name of the ship. Ishmael tells us its origin in chapter "The ship": "It is the name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts Indians, now extinct as the ancient Medes". (Melville, 1984: 72) So the name of the ship seems to foreshadow the tragic ending of the ship from the outset of the story. What does Pequod symbolize when we consider the theme discussed in the thesis?

The symbolic meaning of the ship has been widely discussed. Critics have different opinions about it. Wu Dingbo points out some of the interpretations in his book “The ship on the ocean is a symbol of the whole world with people of every land sailing across the waters of life in quest of its mystery……The ship is one of the American soul. The ship is also a microcosm of the American society.” (Wu Dingbo, 1998: 57) Whether the ship symbolizes of the whole world, or the American soul or a microcosm of the American society, these interpretations are all reasonable and they are not contradictory because American society is just such a melting pot.

We can neither leave out the important chapter "The try-works" nor can we forget the historical context when we are analyzing the ship's symbolic meaning. It often resembles an industrial factory. This point is very clear in "The try-works" chapter. Once the whalers have pulled the dead whale back to their ship, they peel off its blubber in a single long piece just as an orange is stripped. The strip is chopped into pieces, the pieces minced into leaves, and the leaves boiled to release their oil. Therefore, Pequod is a mid-nineteenth century whaling ship where the procuring, manufacturing and marketing of a natural resource are going on. McWilliams points out that "whatever metaphysical meaning one 15

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may ascribe to the whale, the Pequod remains a microcosm of a pioneering industrial world sailing willfully to its annihilation." (McWilliams, 1984: 159) Lawrence also reveals the nature of the ship "American industry! And all this practicality in the service of a mad, mad chase". (Lawrence, 1984: 585)

4.2.3 Symbolic meaning of the hunting

As is analyzed previously, the Whale is symbolic of our blood-nature, or blood-consciousness and the ship a microcosm of a pioneering industrial world. We can come to a natural conclusion that the hunt is symbolic of the triumph of the mental-consciousness over the blood-consciousness in a mechanized industrial world.

In Lawrence's viewpoint, it is a mad, fanatic hunt for a lonely harmless white whale in a mad ship, under a mad captain. Most crew members hunt for the precious whale oil; Ahab hunts a single whale for revenge. Whatever purposes they have, they are going crazy in the process, more and more distant from their own nature, and humanity. In hunting for a shark, Stubb becomes more sharkish than the shark. In hunting for the Whale, Ahab becomes more malicious than the Whale. In weaving a net for the whales, we helplessly set a trap for ourselves. Ahab wishes to destroy something that he, in fact, has to rely upon.

With the deterioration of global environment since the mid-nineteenth century and the introduction of eco-criticism, people's awareness of the need to protect the environment is increasing, so more and more criticism on Moby Dick has been directed to the spoiled man-nature relationship. Man's plundering of the natural resource and the destruction they bring to nature have been seriously condemned. But the idea of environmental protection might only vaguely occur to Melville at that time. What he thinks of the hunt can be reflected in Ishmael's contemplation. If we are too obsessed with our desire and always ready to hunt something, we may be destroyed like Ahab. In chapter "The spirit-spout", Ahab desires the black blood of the Whale so much that he becomes the victim of delusion, mistaking the spirit-spout for Moby Dick's fountain. Night after night he and his men see the strange sights which ever disappear as they approach it: "this solitary jet seemed for ever alluring us on". The hunt is allured by such a delusion! No wonder hearing Ahab giving order "Up helm! Keep her off round the world!" Ishmael laments: Round the world! There is much in that sound to inspire proud feelings; but whereto does all that 16

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circumnavigation conduct? Only through numberless perils to the very point whence we started, where those that we left behind secure, was all the time before us. (Melville, 1986: 224)

Ishmael is obviously showing his doubt about the meaning of the hunt. From his point of view, the voyage leads us nowhere but back to the starting point because man cannot live without his natural instincts which include his desire for family, friendship, life vitality, sex and so on.

4.2.4 Symbolic meaning of the sea

The sea in the novel is a place that is glamorous and full of temptations. It appeals people on land with its unique glamour. Its tranquility, vastness, deepness and purity form an obvious comparison with the land. The author writes that water is always linked together with thought and the sea is the best place where Ishmael could think and explore life. The tenderness of sea reminds the crew on the ship of their mothers’ embrace. The brilliant day is as tempting as the blurred and sweet night. During the daytime, moonlight pours flash out quietly and serenely. The beauty of the sea makes the crew surprise. In his autobiography, Ishmael says that it is this kind of primitive civilization that eliminated the ferity of these strange and savage whalers. Of course, the sea can not be tranquil all the time; it can also be turbulent. Its indignation makes the crew feel the coming of death. The sea evokes their melancholy and boundless reverie. In his description of the sea, the author not only pointed out his natural glamour but also reflected the further connotation the sea represented. The sea is like a mother calling her own children, and a father summoning his children not to violate the natural law, a teacher inspiring students to think. The sea is also like human’s soul that is beyond apprehension, intangible and mysterious.

The sea is the opposite of the land. It symbolizes nature, which has supernatural mysterious force. This power is endowed from the White Whale on the one hand, and presented through the presentation of the unpredictable sea on the other hand. It is sometimes tranquil, tender and solemn, but stormy, frightening at other times. No matter in the sunny day or the starry night it always connotes the fatal destructive force of the whale and secretive dangers. At the end of the novel, the sea’s returning to tranquility symbolizes that human and other species must be compatible with nature and pursue coexistence. 17

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From other angles, the boundlessness and unpredictability of sea symbolize danger. At the same time water is the source of life, so that the sea also symbolizes the inscrutable destiny of human beings.

Ⅴ Conclusion

American writer Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is considered to be one of the greatest novels in American history. One of the peculiarities of Moby Dick is Melville’s use of symbolism to express his ideas. It is said that the book is full of symbols. Everything mentioned in the novel has its own symbolic meaning. And it is enhanced by Melville’s rhythmic, rhetoric prose style, which makes the themes and the symbolic meanings more profound. Just as Vincent says," Symbolism is an aftereffect. The symbolical significance of the thing presented is always secondary to the original, immediate description, and grows out of it, hovering over it like an impalpable presence. Symbolism suggests; it does not flatly state. It is fluid, oblique, shadowy; it is not, like allegory, mechanical equation...Effective symbolism is implicit, not exposed. Symbolism is like quicksilver in the hand, not to be had by the hard, clutching grasp.” (Vincent, 1949: 206-207) Thus there is a need to analyze the symbolic meaning of characters and images mentioned in the masterpiece of symbolism, Moby Dick.

This thesis mainly analyzes the symbolic meaning of the novel. It firstly analyzes the symbolic meanings of its two main themes: one is revenge, the other one is human and nature. Then the thesis discusses the symbolic meanings of its main images and main characters mentioned in the novel. And they are linked together by the two clues of the novel: the first one is Ahab and Moby Dick, and the other one is Ishmael and the hunting. Therefore, the analyses are not scattered over but linked together by its themes and clues, forming a system. And while analyzing the symbolic meaning of one specific image or character, the thesis do not confines itself to one single reasonable understanding, but analyzes it from different perspectives and gives special emphasis to one understanding. Thus the thesis offers a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the symbolic meaning of the novel.

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