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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 .
- Male
- Schoolmaster, Sailor, Oarsman, Whaler
- American
- Herman Melville
Its opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael", is among world literature's most famous. Melville began writing Moby-Dick in February 1850 and finished 18 months later, a year after he had anticipated. Melville drew on his experience as a common sailor from 1841 to 1844, including on whalers, and on wide reading in whaling literature.
- United States
- October 18, 1851 (United Kingdom), November 14, 1851 (US)
- English
- Herman Melville
Oct 18, 2016 · Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and...
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...
The opening chapter of Herman Melville's classic novel introduces the narrator Ishmael, who explains his motives for sailing to sea. He describes his fascination with the ocean and its mysteries, and contrasts it with the land and its limitations.
Jan 11, 2023 · The opening line of Moby Dick, the classic novel by Herman Melville, is a reference to the biblical Ishmael, a wandering soul in search of meaning and belonging. The author uses this line to invite the reader to call him by his name and to understand his character as a symbol of the human condition. Learn more about the significance and meaning of this opening line and the novel as a whole.
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Learn the significance and context of the opening line of Moby Dick, the classic novel by Herman Melville. Ishmael is the narrator of the greatest whale hunt in literature, and he escapes alone to tell the reader about the madness of Captain Ahab and the evil of Moby Dick.
