moby dick白鲸

1、Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. Herman Melville(1819 - 1891)Life Birthplace: New York City. Family: Both his parents came from well-to-do families, but later their family business failed. Melvilles childhood was happy to the age of 11, when hi

2、s father died in debt.Education: left school at the age of 15 and educated himself while working a variety of jobs. Experience: bank clerk; salesman; farm-hand; school teacher; sailor; official of custom house in New York City Marriage: Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of the Chief Justice

3、of Massachusetts. Death: He died of a heart attack on September 28, 1891, at the age of 72. Experience: bank clerk; salesman; farm-hand; school teacher; sailor; official of custom house in New York City Marriage: Melville married Elizabeth Shaw, daughter of the Chief Justice of Massachusetts. Death:

4、 Melvilles final years were marked by personal tragedy. One of his sons shot himself in 1867, and another son, died after a long illness. He died of a heart attack on September 28, 1891, at the age of 72. Moby Dick(1851)Title page of the first U.S. edition of Moby-Dick, 1851. Element of fiction sett

5、ing character point of view plot theme style SettingTime: mid 1800sPlace: various oceans (Atlantic, the Indian, the Pacific)Nantucket, New England ship named PequodNantucket:An Island in Massachusetts, New England, a centre for whaling in 1800sharpoonScrimshaw on the jaw of a whale Main CharactersIs

6、hmael: the narrator of Moby-Dick, the only survivor of the destruction of the Pequod. It seems that the name is not his actual name. Queequeg:The son of the chief of a tribe, he befriends Ishmael before they leave port. Queequeg is a skilled harpooner.Fedallah ：the harpooner on Ahabs own boat. He ha

7、s some prophetic abilities.MatesStarbuck, the young first mate of the Pequod, is a thoughtful and intellectual man.Stubb is the second mate of the Pequod, who always seems to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. Flask is the third mate of the Pequod. Captain Ahab: the Captain of the Peq

8、uod. He is reaching his sixties who has spent nearly forty years as a sailor. He is anxious to defeat the legendary Sperm Whale Moby Dick, for this whale took Ahabs leg, causing him to use a leg made of the jaw of a whale to walk and stand. Ahab believes he is fated to kill Moby Dick and lives for t

9、his purpose alone. Captain Ahab: the Captain of the Pequod. He is reaching his sixties. He believes he is fated to kill Moby Dick and lives for this purpose alone for this whale took Ahabs leg, causing him to use a leg made of the jaw of a whale to walk and stand. Moby DickMoby Dick is a white sperm

10、 whale of extraordinary ferocity, but also possessed of strength, mystery, and power. Symbols The Pequod Named after a Native American tribe in Massachusetts that did not long survive the arrival of white men and thus died out. The Pequod is a symbol of doom. Voyage of the PequodSymbol of the pursui

11、t of ideals, adventure.Moby Dick 1) Symbol of nature for human beings because it is mysterious, powerful, unknown.2) Symbol of evil for the Captain Ahab. Queequegs coffinLife and death The name Ishmael stems from that of the first son of Abraham in the Old Testament.AbrahamHagarSarahIshmaelIsaacThe

12、name has come to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts. AhabSymbol of solipsism, revenge and then evil.Themes of Moby Dick 1. Search for truth The story deals with the human pursuit of truth and the meaning of existence. 2. Conflict between Man and Nature. 3. Solipsism.Style a.realistic: na

13、tural description of life on seab.symbolismc.Intermingling of fact, fiction and subtle symbolism in one story, unfamiliar to the literature in his timed.Tragic view of life: universe itself is working against human happinessCall me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having lit

14、tle or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. That captain was Ahab. Moby Dick had reaped away Ahabs leg, as a mower a blade of grass in the field. Small reason was there to doubt, then, that e

15、ver since that almost fatal encounter, Ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale, all the more fell for that in his frantic morbidness he at last came to identify with him, not only all his bodily woes, but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations. (Chapter 41 p40 )Look ye!

16、dye see this Spanish ounce of gold?- holding up a broad bright coin to the sun- it is a sixteen dollar piece, men. Dye see it? Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his s

17、tarboard fluke- look ye, whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys! Captain Ahab, I have heard of Moby Dick- but it was not Moby Dick that took off thy leg?Who told thee that? cried Ahab; then pausing, Aye, Starbuck; aye, it was Moby Dick that dismasted

18、me; Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye, he shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose; And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black

19、blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it,” (from Chapter 36)Of the hearses? Have I not said, old man, that neither hearse nor coffin can be thine?But I said, old man, that ere thou couldst die on this voyage, two hearses must verily be seen by thee on the sea; the first

20、not made by mortal hands; and the visible wood of the last one must be grown in America.“Believe it or not, thou canst not die till it be seen, old man.(Chapter 117)For, it was not so much his uncommon bulk that so much distinguished him from other sperm whales, but, as was elsewhere thrown out- a peculiar snow