Fear No More -Shakespeare

 

• Introduction :-

The lines of ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ are sung in the play Cymbeline, over the recreantly deceased forms of Cloten and Fidele. It appears in Act IV, Scene 2, and is sung by Guiderius and Argiragus, the sons of Cymbeline. They alternate verses, or stanzas. Cymbeline is also known as The Tragedie of Cymebline or Cymbeline, King of Britain. By some, the play is considered to be a romance or a comedy and it was included in the First Folio in 1623 but scholars are unsure when exactly it was written. Some believe that a secondary writer might’ve worked on the play, specifically parts of Act II and Act V. Today, Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays but at the time it was quite popular. John Keats even later named it as one of his favourites.

• About the Poet :-

William Shakespeare, Shakespeare also spelled Shakspere, byname Bard of Avon or Swan of Avon, (baptized April 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England—died April 23, 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon), English poet, dramatist, and actor often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time.Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. 

His Notable works includes, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” “All’s Well That Ends Well” “Antony and Cleopatra” “As You Like It” “Coriolanus” “Cymbeline” First Folio “Hamlet” “Henry IV, Part 1” “Henry IV, Part 2” “Henry V” “Henry VI, Part 1” “Henry VI, Part 2” “Henry VI, Part 3” “Henry VIII” “Julius Caesar” “King John” “King Lear” “Love’s Labour’s Lost” “Macbeth” “Measure for Measure” “Much Ado About Nothing” “Othello” “Pericles” “Richard III” “The Comedy of Errors” “The Merchant of Venice” “The Merry Wives of Windsor” “The Taming of the Shrew” “The Tempest” “Timon of Athens”.

• A Poem :-

Song: “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” 

Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,

Nor the furious winter’s rages;

Thou thy worldly task hast done,

Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:

Golden lads and girls all must,

As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.

Fear no more the frown o’ the great;

Thou art past the tyrant’s stroke;

Care no more to clothe and eat;

To thee the reed is as the oak:

The scepter, learning, physic, must

All follow this, and come to dust.

Fear no more the lightning flash,

Nor the all-dreaded thunder stone;

Fear not slander, censure rash;

Thou hast finished joy and moan:

All lovers young, all lovers must

Consign to thee, and come to dust.

No exorciser harm thee!

Nor no witchcraft charm thee!

Ghost unlaid forbear thee!

Nothing ill come near thee!

Quiet consummation have;

And renownèd be thy grave!

• BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

• Analysis of the Poem :-

Summary of Poem :-

In the lines of the poem/song, the two speakers go through all the reasons that the listeners, who can’t actually hear them, should be glad their dead. They are rid of all work, jobs, and responsibilities that the real world would demand of them. They also don’t have to worry about punishments from those in power or following any set of rules. There is also a repetition of the fact that everyone, no matter their beauty, power, or age will find death. 

Themes of the Poem :-

The primary theme in ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ is quite clear, it is death. The lines of this poem/song are quite simple, especially for Shakespeare, and convey quite clearly the speakers’ interest, death, and the escape it provides from life. They take turns laying out all the reasons that someone who has died should be glad they did. This isn’t in order to drive someone to suicide, but so that the two “deaths” that feature in this section of the play are cast in a less depressing light. 

Structure and Form :-

Song: “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” by William Shakespeare is a four stanza excerpt from the play Cymbeline. These four verses of the song, or stanzas in this context, follow a rhyme scheme ABCBDD, changing end sounds from stanza to stanza. There is a good example of repetition at the end of the first three stanzas where Shakespeare uses epistrophe, repeating the words “must” and “dust”  at the ends of lines five and six of stanzas one, two, and three. The same technique appears in the final stanza where the rhyme scheme is broken and “thee” ends the first four lines of the stanza. 

Literary Devices

Shakespeare makes use of several literary devices in ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’. These include but are not limited to juxtaposition, enjambment, and an example of an apostrophe. The first, juxtaposition, is seen through the various things that the speaker believes dead people no longer have to concern themselves with. A good example can be found in the first stanza when the singers suggest that neither “winter’s rages” nor the “heat o’ the sun” should bother the dead. 

Enjambment is another common formal device that appears throughout Shakespeare’s plays and poems. In this case, readers can find a few examples. For instance, the transition between lines five and six of the second stanza and five and six of the third stanza. 

In these lines, Shakespeare also uses another technique known as an apostrophe. This is seen when the speaker or speakers address their words to someone or something that cannot hear them or is unable to hear them. In this case, they are talking to people who are either sleeping or dead. 

• Conclusion :-

The poem is a plea to God to keep the country safe from wickedness. Tagore wrote the poem while India was still under British rule and people were excitedly anticipating their independence. It is a prayer to the Almighty for a nation free of all manipulation and corruption.

Ozymandias -Shelley

 Introduction :-

"Ozymandias" is a sonnet written by the English romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822). It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner of London. The poem was included the following year in Shelley's collection Rosalind and Helen, A Modern Eclogue; with Other Poems, and in a posthumous compilation of his poems published in 1826.

Shelley wrote the poem in friendly competition with his friend and fellow poet Horace Smith (1779–1849), who also wrote a sonnet on the same topic with the same title. The poem explores the worldly fate of history and the ravages of time: even the greatest men and the empires they forge are impermanent, their legacies fated to decay into oblivion.

About the Poet :-

Percy Bysshe Shelley ( 4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets.[3][4] A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death and he became an important influence on subsequent generations of poets including Robert Browning, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Thomas Hardy, and W. B. Yeats.[5] American literary critic Harold Bloom describes him as "a superb craftsman, a lyric poet without rival, and surely one of the most advanced sceptical intellectuals ever to write a poem."

Tragically, Shelley died young, at the age of 29, when the boat he was sailing got caught in a storm. His body washed to shore sometime later.

A Poem :-

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Analysis of the Poem :-

• Summary of the Poem :-

In this poem, the speaker describes meeting a traveler “from an antique land.” The title, ‘Ozymandias,’ notifies the reader that this land is most probably Egypt since Ozymandias was what the Greeks called Ramses II. He was a great and terrible pharaoh in ancient Egypt.

The traveler tells a story to the speaker. In the story, he describes visiting Egypt. There, he saw a large and intimidating statue of Ramses in the desert. He can tell that the sculptor must have known his subject well because it is obvious from the statue’s face that this man was a great leader, but one who could also be very vicious.

He describes his sneer as having a “cold command.” Even though the leader was probably very great, it seems that the only thing that survives from his realm is this statue, which is half-buried and somewhat falling apart.

• Structure and Form

Form :- Sonnet

Rhyme Scheme :- ABABACDC EDEFEF

Meter :- Iambic Pentameter

‘Ozymandias’ is considered to be a Petrarchan sonnet, even though the rhyme scheme varies slightly from the traditional sonnet form. Structurally all sonnets contain fourteen lines and are written in iambic pentameter.

The rhyme scheme of ‘Ozymandias’ is ABABACDC EDEFEF. This rhyme scheme differs from the rhyme scheme of a traditional Petrarchan sonnet, whose octave (the first eight lines of the poem) usually has a rhyme scheme of ABBAABBA. Its sestet (the final six lines of the sonnet) does not have an assigned rhyme scheme, but it usually rhymes in every other line or contains three different rhymes.

Shelley’s defiance of this rhyme scheme helps to set apart ‘Ozymandias’ from other Petrarchan sonnets, and it is perhaps why this poem is so memorable. The reason he did this may have been to represent the corruption of authority or lawmakers.

• Literary Devices :-

Shelley plays with a number of figurative devices in order to make the sonnet more appealing to readers. These devices include:

1. Enjambment :- Shelley uses this device throughout the text. For example, it occurs in lines 2-8. By enjambing the lines, the poet creates a surprising flow.

2. Alliteration :- It occurs in “an antique,” “stone/ Stand,” “sunk a shattered,” “cold command,” etc.

3. Metaphor :- The “sneer of cold command” contains a metaphor. Here, the ruler’s contempt for his subjugates is compared to the ruthlessness of a military commander.

4. Irony :- Shelley uses this device in the following lines, “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!/ Nothing beside remains.” The following lines also contain this device.

5. Synecdoche :- In the poem, the “hand” and “heart” collectively hint at the pharaoh, Ozymandias, as a whole. It is a use of synecdoche.

6. Allusion :- The line “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings” is an allusion to the actual inscription described in the Greek historian Diodorus Siculus’s Bibliotheca historica.

Themes of the Poem :-

Shelley makes use of a number of themes in this sonnet. The most important theme is the impermanence of a ruler’s glory and his legacy. It is an implicit hint at the idea of futility. No matter how hard a man tries to rivet his name, at some point, people will forget him. For example, Ozymandias tried to become greater than God. He declared himself the “King of Kings.” If we look at history, every ambitious ruler declared them, more or less, by the same title. In their pursuit of greatness, they forgot about their very nature: every living thing must die. Besides, the sonnet also utilizes the themes of vainglory, the power of art, the decline of power, etc.

Conclusion :-

The passage of time destroys even the most powerful or mightiest person or thing in the world. Thus, we should not be boastful, egoistic or live with pride. Instead, we should live a life of simplicity.

The Soldier -Rupert Brook

 The Soldier

BY RUPERT BROOKE

Introduction :-

"The Soldier" is a poem written by Rupert Brooke. The poem is the fifth in a series of poems entitled 1914. It was published in 1915 in the book 1914 and Other Poems.

It is often contrasted with Wilfred Owen's 1917 antiwar poem "Dulce et Decorum est". The manuscript is located at King's College, Cambridge.

The Poem :-

If I should die, think only this of me:

      That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

      In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

      Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;

A body of England’s, breathing English air,

      Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

      A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

            Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

      And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

            In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Note :- This poem has had two titles: “The Soldier” and “Nineteen-Fourteen: The Soldier”. The student may give either title during the recitation.

About the Poet :-

Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915[1]) was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier". He was also known for his boyish good looks, which were said to have prompted the Irish poet W. B. Yeats to describe him as "the handsomest young man in England".

This poem, 'The Soldier', is not only one of Brooke's most famous poems but one of the most famous poems written during the war and indeed in the 20th century. Here it is accompanied by another of Brooke's well-known sonnets, 'The Dead'.

“The Soldier” Summary :-

If I die in the war, I want to be remembered in a particular way. Think of how the far-off land on which I die will have a small piece of England forever. That earth will be enriched by my dead body, because my body is made from dirt born in England. England created me and gave me consciousness, gave me her blooming plants to fall in love with, and gave me my sense of freedom. My body belongs to England, has always breathed English air. England's rivers cleansed me, and I was blessed by England's sun.

Also consider the way in which my soul, through death, will be made pure. My consciousness will return to the immortal consciousness like a beating pulse, and return the beautiful thoughts that England gave me. I'll return the sights and sounds of my home country; to the beautiful dreams that were as happy as England's daytime; and to the laughter shared with English friends. And I'll return England's gentleness, which lives in the English minds that are at peace under the English sky (the English heaven where I will be at peace too when I die).

Analysis of the Poem :-

The Soldier” Setting :-

The setting of this poem can fairly be described as the speaker's idea of England. He sees himself—in both body and mind—as an extension of England. If he is to die during the war, then a small part of England will enrich the soil wherever he dies. The rest of the first stanza discusses his beloved England, portraying it as a pastoral paradise—saying little of the rain that often falls there! Instead, England is like Eden: a kind of rich and beautiful garden full of flowers, fresh air, flowing rivers, and sunshine. This sets up the way that the second stanza explicitly links England to heaven itself ("hearts at peace, under an English heaven"). Indeed, heaven and England are practically interchangeable in the speaker's mind.

“The Soldier” Speaker :-

The speaker in this poem is, of course, the "soldier" of the title. The reader learns nothing specific about this soldier's circumstances, and that's because this soldier is a kind of idealised figure who represents an equally idealised way of considering nationhood and patriotism.

Rhyme Scheme :-

"The Soldier" has a regular rhyme scheme that borrows from two different sonnet traditions, using a Shakespearean rhyme scheme in the octave (the first eight lines) and a Petrarchan rhyme scheme in the sestet (the final six).

The octave is rhymed :- ABABCDCD

Meter :-

"The Soldier" is written in formal, metrical verse. As is typical of sonnets in the English language, Brooke employs iambic pentameter—lines of five feet with an unstressed-stressed, da DUM, syllable pattern—throughout the poem.

Form :-

"The Soldier" borrows from both the Shakespearean and the Petrarchan versions of the sonnet. The first stanza follows the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet, while the second follows that of a Petrarchan sonnet. Structurally, however, the poem more closely adheres to the Petrarchan sonnet overall, which is divided into an octave (an eight-line stanza) and a sestet (a six-line stanza).

Conclusion :-

So, this poem is based on the theme of patriarchy and the love for nation. Rubert Brooke is mostly wrote his poems on the favour of world war and he expresses his love for his nation through his poems.

The Daffodils -Wordsworth

 Introduction :-

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" (also commonly known as "Daffodils") is a lyric poem by William Wordsworth. It is one of his most popular, and was inspired by a forest encounter on 15 April 1802 between he, his younger sister Dorothy and a "long belt" of daffodils. Written in 1804, it was first published in 1807 in Poems, in Two Volumes, and as a revision in 1815.

Poem :-

 I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

– William Wordsworth (1802)

About the Poet :-

William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads (1798).

Wordsworth's magnum opus is generally considered to be The Prelude, a semi-autobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of times. It was posthumously titled and published by his wife in the year of his death, before which it was generally known as "the poem to Coleridge".

Wordsworth was Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death from pleurisy on 23 April 1850.

Summary of the Poem :-

The speaker, likely William Wordsworth himself, is wandering down the hills and valley when he stumbled upon a beautiful field of daffodils. The speaker is transfixed by the daffodils seemingly waving, fluttering, and dancing along the waterside. Albeit, the lake’s waves moved as fervently, but the beauty of daffodils outdid with flying colors. The poet feels immensely gleeful and chirpy at this mesmerizing natural sight. Amongst the company of flowers, he remains transfixed at those daffodils wavering with full vigor. Oblivious to the poet is the fact that this wondrous scenery of daffodils brings the poet immense blithe and joy when he’s in a tense mood or perplexed for that matter. His heart breaths a new life and gives him exponential happiness at sight worth a thousand words.

Analysis of the Poem :-

Structure and Form :-

The poem is composed of four stanzas of six lines each. It is an adherent to the quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme, A-B-A-B-C-C. Every line conforms to iambic tetrameter. The poem ‘Daffodils’ works within the a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme scheme as it uses consistent rhyming to invoke nature at each stanza’s end. Moreover, it helps in creating imagery skillfully as the poet originally intended. The poem flows akin to a planned song in a rhythmic structure. Consonance and alliteration are used to create rhymes.

This poem is written from the first-person point of view. Therefore it is an ideal example of a lyric poem. The poetic persona is none other than Wordsworth himself. This piece contains a regular meter. There are eight syllables per line, and the stress falls on the second syllable of each foot. There are four iambs in each line. Thus the poem is in iambic tetrameter. 

Symbols :-

The poem begins with a symbolic reference to the cloud. It is wandering and lonely. The poetic persona is the embodiment of such a cloud. Hence, it symbolizes being lonely and thoughtless. This state is achieved when one is free from mundane thoughts.

The most important symbol of this piece is the daffodils. The narcissistic description of the flower seems to be alluding to the Greek myth. Apart from that, the daffodil acts as a symbol of rejuvenation and pure joy. Wordsworth becomes the means through which the flowers express their vibrance. In his pensive mood, they become a means for the poet’s self-reflection.

Figurative Language and Poetic Devices :-

Wordsworth makes use of several literary devices in ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.’ These include but are not limited to similes, hyperboles, personification, and allusion. Similes are also used since the poet alludes to an aimless cloud as he takes a casual stroll. Moreover, daffodils are compared to star clusters in Milky Way to explicate the magnitude of daffodils fluttering freely beside the lake. At times, hyperbole is used to explicate the immensity of the situation. The allusion of daffodils to stars spread across the Milky Way is one such instance. Furthermore, the daffodils are even made anthropomorphous to create a human portrayal of Mother Nature in this instance.

Moreover, the poet has also used reverse personifications, equating humans to clouds and daffodils to humans with constant movement. Using this clever tactic, the poet brings people closer to nature, becoming a hallmark of William Wordsworth’s most basic yet effective methods for relating readers with nature, appreciating its pristine glory. Daffodils celebrate the beauty of nature and its purity, along with the bliss of solitude. He deems his solitude as an asset and inspires him to live a meaningful life.

Wordsworth makes use of imagery figuratively to display his feelings and emotions after encountering the daffodils. Firstly, the image of the cloud describes the poet’s mental state, and the images that appear after that vividly portray the flowers. These images, in most cases, are visual, and some have auditory effects (For example, “Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”) associated with them.

Historical Context  :-

Hailed as the champion of the Romantic Movement in the early 19th century, William Wordsworth dwelled in the scenic Lake District (United Kingdom), far from the madding crowd. Its roots can be traced back to Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, in which she reminisces a casual stroll with his brother in 1802, where they came across beautiful daffodils. The poem was composed within the time period of 1804-1807 and subsequently published in 1807, with a revised version published in 1815. The poem is considered a masterpiece of Romantic Era poetry steeped in natural imagery. Walking along Glencoyne Bay, the siblings stumbled across beautiful daffodils along the bay. As the sister’s journal recalls, the daffodils seemed immensely beautiful from a far-off view. It was indeed a magnificent sight.

Themes of the Poem :-

Throughout ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,’ Wordsworth engages with themes of nature, memory, and spirituality. These three are tied together as the speaker, Wordsworth himself, moves through a beautiful landscape. He takes pleasure in the sight of the daffodils and revives his spirit in nature. At the same time, Wordsworth explores the theme of memory, as he does in other works such as ‘Tintern Abbey.’ The flowers are there to comfort him in real-time and as a memory from the past.

Conclusion :-

Also, it has a message to praise the beauty of nature. One who is close to nature and enjoys in its company never feel depressed or lonely. Nature is the greatest gift or blessing to mankind. It has the power to heal our miseries and make us lively again.

Moby Dick,Herman Melville

 Introduction :-

Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for vengeance against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship's previous voyage. A contribution to the literature of the American Renaissance, Moby-Dick was published to mixed reviews, was a commercial failure, and was out of print at the time of the author's death in 1891. Its reputation as a Great American Novel was established only in the 20th century, after the 1919 centennial of its author's birth. William Faulkner said he wished he had written the book himself, and D. H. Lawrence called it "one of the strangest and most wonderful books in the world" and "the greatest book of the sea ever written".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. The white whale is modelled on a notoriously hard-to-catch albino whale, Mocha Dick, and the book's ending is based on the sinking of the whaleship Essex in 1820. The detailed and realistic descriptions of whale hunting and of extracting whale oil, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the existence of God.

The book was first published (in three volumes) as The Whale in London in October 1851, and under its definitive title, Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, in a single-volume edition in New York in November. 

About the Novelist :-

Herman Melville ( August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticised account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. Although his reputation was not high at the time of his death, the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival, and Moby-Dick grew to be considered one of the great American novels.Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he travelled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.

Summary of the Novel :-

Moby Dick begins with Ishmael following his impulse to go to sea. He meets Queequeg, and they join the crew of the Pequod together. Once the ship is out to sea, Ahab introduces himself to the crew and declares his mission to kill Moby Dick. He offers a gold doubloon to the first crew member to spot Moby Dick. The voyage begins with several unsuccessful hunts, but they eventually manage to catch and process several whales. Two crew members, Tashteego and Pip, nearly lose their lives. Tashteego falls into a whale's head during processing. He is saved by a quick-thinking Queequeg. Pip, a child, is briefly lost at sea. Both survive, but Pip is traumatized and subsequently takes on a prophetic role. Queequeg falls ill shortly thereafter and asks that a coffin be built for him. He recovers and uses the coffin as storage.

By this point, they have entered the Indian Ocean. A crew member named Fedallah prophesies Ahab's death. The specifics of the prophecy lead Ahab to believe that he will not die at sea. Soon after, the Pequod encounters an electric storm. An electrical charge struck the ship's mast and created a rare phenomenon known as St. Elmo's Fire. The ship was briefly engulfed in an otherworldly glow. Ahab interprets this as a sign that his mission is fated to succeed. Starbuck considers it an ominous sign from God. The Pequod loses its first crew member as the storm subsides, foreshadowing the crew's fate.

Ahab pursues Moby Dick toward the equator. They encounter two ships that have lost crew members in recent battles with the whale. Finally, the crew of the Pequod spots Moby Dick. For three days Ahab and his crew pursue the white whale from their whaleboats. On the first day, Moby Dick attacks and sinks Ahab's whaleboat. On the second day, Fedullah is trapped in the harpoon line attached to Moby Dick. He is pulled overboard and dies. On the final day of the pursuit, Moby Dick rams the Pequod itself, sinking it. Ahab and all his crew, save one, go down with the ship. Ishmael alone survives, using Queequeg's coffin as a lifeboat.

Characters in Moby Dick :-

Moby Dick is an epic novel with an extensive list of characters. The following characters are those most central to the plot.

• Ishmael

Ishmael is the first-person narrator of Moby Dick. The novel famously begins with his statement, ''Call me Ishmael.'' He joins the crew of the Pequod because he is seeking both adventure and emotional relief.

''Ishmael explains, 'Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily passing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet. . .then, I find it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.' ''

Ishmael shares Ahab's fascination with Moby Dick, but does not share the captain's disdain for the white whale. Ishmael's character serves as a foil to Captain Ahab. Ishmael is a philosopher at heart. His worldview is always adapting as he takes in new information and experiences.

Ishmael is one of several characters in Moby Dick whose name has biblical significance. The biblical Ishmael was rejected by his father in favor of his younger brother. Similarly, Melville's Ishmael considers himself an outcast. The biblical Ishmael is banished to the desert. Melville's Ishmael voluntarily turns to the sea as a balm.

• Queegueg

Queequeg is a harpooner aboard the Pequod. He is a prince from a fictional island in the South Pacific. His tribe practices cannibalism. Queequeg joins the crew at the same time as Ishmael, and they become friends. He is loyal, generous, and brave.

Queequeg embodies many racist stereotypes. His culture is an amalgam of cultural generalities and stereotypes. Some interpretations posit that this collection of cultures personified demonstrates a theme of humanity's universality. Perhaps this was Melville's intention. Either way, Queequeg is presented as a noble savage, and Ishmael is depicted as enlightened for learning to see Queequeg's humanity.

After a serious illness at sea, Queequeg builds himself a coffin in the shape of a canoe. He is motivated to do so because he feels he is near death, even after he fully recovers. Queequeg believes that a person decides when they will die. In this way, he exemplifies the theme of free will in Moby Dick. He imagines the coffin as a fusion of a Christian coffin, and the canoes his tribe builds to send their dead out to sea. In the end, Queequeg's empty coffin serves as a life raft for Ishmael.

• Captain Ahab

It is in Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick that Melville's theme of man vs. nature is depicted. Melville writes Ahab with a fatal flaw, which is his obsession with killing Moby Dick. Ahab is neither a terrible person nor a terrible captain aside from this flaw, which drives him to pursue Moby Dick to spite intensifying risk. His arrogance infuses him with the belief that he can conquer nature in the form of the white whale.

''What I've dared, I've willed; and what I've willed, I'll do! They think me mad-Starbuck does; but I'm demoniac! I am madness maddened! That wild madness that's only calmed to comprehend itself! The prophecy was that I should be dismembered; and-Aye! I lost this leg. I now prophesy that I will dismember my dismemberer.''

Captain Ahab's hatred of Moby Dick originated with a prior failed pursuit in which Moby Dick escaped after taking Ahab's leg. Since that time, Ahab has single-mindedly hunted it to the far reaches of the sea. Although the symbolic interpretation of the whale is thematically subjective, Captain Ahab definitively sees the whale as the embodiment of evil.

• Moby Dick

Moby Dick's behavior within the novel is consistent with a wild animal's. He acts out of an instinct to survive; however, Captain Ahab infuses those actions with nefarious intent. He creates a mythology around the whale that colors the way the crew views Moby Dick as well.

In the white whale, Melville manifests an idea that allows for multiple interpretations. For Ahab, Moby Dick is evil embodied, but Melville's story allows for the whale to simultaneously symbolize God, fate, the natural world, the unknown, America, and the universe in its entirety. Moby Dick exists as a symbol around which Melville's themes develop.

• Starbuck

Starbuck is the first mate on the Pequod. He is stoic and religious. He turns to his Christian faith for guidance. He puts his faith in God and believes that his fate is God's will. He shares Queequeg's and Ishmael's concern about Captain Ahab's maniacal obsession. Starbuck even considers killing Ahab to stop his relentless quest, although he does not.

Themes of the Novel :-

• The Limits of Knowledge

As Ishmael tries, in the opening pages of Moby-Dick, to offer a simple collection of literary excerpts mentioning whales, he discovers that, throughout history, the whale has taken on an incredible multiplicity of meanings. Over the course of the novel, he makes use of nearly every discipline known to man in his attempts to understand the essential nature of the whale. Each of these systems of knowledge, however, including art, taxonomy, and phrenology, fails to give an adequate account. The multiplicity of approaches that Ishmael takes, coupled with his compulsive need to assert his authority as a narrator and the frequent references to the limits of observation (men cannot see the depths of the ocean, for example), suggest that human knowledge is always limited and insufficient. When it comes to Moby Dick himself, this limitation takes on allegorical significance. The ways of Moby Dick, like those of the Christian God, are unknowable to man, and thus trying to interpret them, as Ahab does, is inevitably futile and often fatal.

• The Deceptiveness of Fate

In addition to highlighting many portentous or foreshadowing events, Ishmael’s narrative contains many references to fate, creating the impression that the Pequod’s doom is inevitable. Many of the sailors believe in prophecies, and some even claim the ability to foretell the future. A number of things suggest, however, that characters are actually deluding themselves when they think that they see the work of fate and that fate either doesn’t exist or is one of the many forces about which human beings can have no distinct knowledge. Ahab, for example, clearly exploits the sailors’ belief in fate to manipulate them into thinking that the quest for Moby Dick is their common destiny. Moreover, the prophesies of Fedallah and others seem to be undercut in Chapter 99, when various individuals interpret the doubloon in different ways, demonstrating that humans project what they want to see when they try to interpret signs and portents.