The Madness Of Humanity—an Analysis Of Moby Dick From The Perspective Of Lacan’s Desire Theory

Herman Melville is one of the most important writers of the history of American literature in the period of romanticism. He was best known for his novels on whaling and ocean, and famous as the author of Moby Dick, which is the masterpiece of Melville. As a part adventure story and part allegory, Moby Dick, and the polarized characters in it received wild and controversial discussion in the field of criticism. Different from the other romantic writers at the same period, Herman Melville did not get noticed by his contemporaries mainly for the themes and languages that were difficult for the readers to understand. However, with the further study of Herman Melville as well as his works, the great author was regarded as one of the most dominant writers in the history of American literature. As the masterpiece of Herman Melville, Moby Dick was regarded as the "Marine Bible". Numerous theses and treatises focus their attention on the study of the novel as well as the characters, like the study of redemption, bible prototypes, and the capitalism discourse power indicated by the novel. Captain Ahab in Moby Dick received most of the public’s attention for his mad behaviour, driven by his monomaniacal desire for revenge.The author of this thesis firstly has a brief introduction on Herman Melville and his works. With a general review on the studies of Herman Melville and his works, the necessity to write this thesis is provided to its readers.In all, the thesis consists of five parts, with three chapters forms the main body of the thesis. According to the Desire Theory of Jacques Lacan, chapter one is the analysis of the characters with the first level of desire, with the examination and comparison between the seaman on the ship, it states that most of the sailors sail out to satisfy their first level of desire, which is the need for basic living conditions. From the perspective of desire theory, chapter two has an analysis of some of the characters in Moby Dick, from two aspects, the demands of the sailors are analyzed firstly from the aspect of the demanding of love, and secondly from the demand of accompany. With the examinations of the first two chapters, chapter three is the last chapter of the thesis’s main body. It has a detailed analysis of the characters, especially the captain Ahab, from the perspective of the third level of desire. From two aspects, it states the madness of the characters in their process to have the desire satisfied.By analyzing the different levels of desire the characters have in Moby Dick, and according to the desire theory of Lacan, the statement of this thesis is exposed---characters in Moby Dick have different levels of desire, being satisfied or unsatisfied, they are driven into madness by the desires they have, and become inhumanity.