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Ishmael is a character in Herman Melville 's Moby-Dick (1851), which opens with the line "Call me Ishmael." He is the first-person narrator of much of the book. Because Ishmael plays a minor role in the plot, early critics of Moby-Dick assumed that Captain Ahab was the protagonist.
Indeed, at times even Ishmael fails Melville’s purposes, and he disappears from the story for long stretches, replaced by dramatic dialogues and soliloquies from Ahab and other characters. A detailed description and in-depth analysis of Ishmael in Moby-Dick.
Nov 21, 2023 · Learn about Ishmael from Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Read about Ishmael's role in the plot, see a character analysis, and explore the symbolism of this character. Updated: 11/21/2023.
- What kind of person is Ishmael in Moby Dick?Ishmael is perceptive and philosophical. As the narrator, he gives almost no information about his physical appearance or his backstory. He is a lo...
- Why is the name Ishmael used in Moby Dick?The name Ishmael is a reference to one of Abraham's sons in the Bible. The name means "God hears." Both the biblical Ishmael and the novel's Ishmae...
- What does Ishmael fear in Moby Dick?Initially, because he has been told his roommate is a cannibal, Ishmael fears the mysterious Queequeg. However, Ishmael learns to respect and trust...
ISHMAEL: TIME AND PERSONALITY IN MOBY-DICK CARL F. STRAUCH Recent criticism of Moby-Dick has directed attention to Ishmael as narrator, character, and consciousness. In The Long Encounter Merlin Bowen's remarks on Ishmael as a character important in the unfolding of his own tale cannot be improved upon for their justice.
Apr 19, 2024 · Moby Dick famously begins with the narratorial invocation “Call me Ishmael.”. The narrator, like his biblical counterpart, is an outcast. Ishmael, who turns to the sea for meaning, relays to the audience the final voyage of the Pequod, a whaling vessel.
- What is Moby Dick?Moby Dick is a novel by Herman Melville, published in London in October 1851 as The Whale and a month later in New York City as Moby-Dick; or, The...
- Where does Moby Dick take place?The action of Moby Dick takes place largely on Captain Ahab’s whaling ship, the Pequod, while sailing in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans.
- How was Moby Dick received when it was first published?When Moby Dick was first published, the public was unimpressed. It sold fewer than 4,000 copies in total, including fewer than 600 in the United Ki...
- What is Moby Dick a metaphor for?The whale Moby Dick has been interpreted as a metaphor for a great many things, from the Judeo-Christian God to atheism and everything in between....
- Why is Moby Dick a famous novel?Moby Dick gained recognition as an important American novel in the 1920s, more than half a century after its publication. Its fame subsequently gre...
Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick is one of the most well-known novels of the American literary canon. Considered confusing at best and unreadable at worst in its day, Moby-Dick was Melville’s attempt at writing something Shakespearean, yet it could not stand up to his more popular early novels about adventure stories in the South Pacific.
The Ishmael of Moby-Dick, I would like to argue, is presented in the role of such a personified audience figure in many situations of the novel, and the stance of the critical spectator, which has so often been ascribed to him, meshes well with this role.4 The recurrence of, and the emphasis on, situations in which he appears as a reader of book...
