PT3 Novel "Moby Dick" Theme of Revenge

   Based on the novel “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville, the story unveils an adventure of a young whaler, Ishmael, who narrated the story of his hunt for a white whale with Captain Ahab. The dominant theme of the story is revenge. This could be seen as Captain Ahab was determined, resourceful, and courageous in killing Moby Dick, the white whale.

   Firstly, Captain Ahab was determined to kill Moby Dick as he lost a leg when he fought Moby Dick during his first encounter with the whale. He hated the whale so much because he could not live a normal life without a leg. He wanted to kill the whale that he offered some gold to his crew who saw the whale first. He even ignored Starbuck’s advice to stop the ship to repair the barrels as he did not want to lose a day’s sailing to look for the white whale. However, he changed his mind later and asked his men to stop sailing.

   Moreover, Captain Ahab was also resourceful to kill the white whale that he brought along another five men with Fedallah as their leader. Even though he has already a crew who came from different countries on his ship, he still employed Fedallah and his people as they were strong, fast and skillful whalers.

   Lastly, Captain Ahab himself was so courageous when he knew he was going to die if he continued to chase after the white whale. He was not afraid of it as he really wanted to kill it. Despite bad experiences in the first two days, he did not give up though he was tired and couldn’t walk as he lost his whalebone leg. When Fedallah went missing, he knew that it would end but he would not stop.

  Therefore, Captain Ahab was determined, resourceful and courageous despite death as he was vengeful to kill Moby Dick. However, these qualities had led himself and his men to a disaster.