Nature As Doubloon And Human As Isolato: Melville's Quest Of Man-Nature Relationship In Moby-Dick

This thesis explores Melville's vision of man-nature relationship implied in his novel Moby-Dick by recognizing Ishmael, the narrator, as both the implied author's mouthpiece and the center of consciousness of the whole text. Special attention is paid to the explication of the main ways of interaction with Nature including the Christian submissiveness represented by Starbuck, the double-layered evilness of Nature and the incessant rivalry against it represented by Ahab, the Emersonian fantasy about Nature represented by the younger experiencing Ishmael and finally the philosophical coolness towards Nature's emptiness represented by Ishmael the narrator. By focusing on the narrator Ishmael's analogy of human mind as "light" and "color", the main ways of interaction with Nature presented in the novel are incorporated into a whole to reveal the essential truth about Melville's vision of man-nature relationship that Nature is but a meaningless, amoral existence like the Spanish coin the Doubloon on the mast of Pequod, reflecting what the human mind inscribes on it; while human is a spiritual isolato in this colorless, atheistic world. This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one explicates the first mode of man-nature relationship under the colored light of Christianity with Starbuck as the representative. Chapter two focuses on another mode of man-nature relationship in the colored light of Ahab's egotism. Chapter three is devoted to the explication of Ishmael's vision of man-nature relationship as both actor and narrator. Chapter four provides a validation of the relationship between Ishmael, the narrator, and the implied image of Melville in Moby-Dick. This study attempts to interpret the theme in combination with the structural and formal features of the text so as to provide an alternative way of appreciating Melville's vision on Nature and his artistic presentation of it.