Death Or Survival: An Interpretation Of Ahab And Ishmael In Moby-dick From The Perspective Of Kantian Philosophy

Herman Melville is not only one of the greatest romanticists in American literary history but also an influential writer in world literature. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville's masterpiece, is now considered to be one of the world's greatest works although the initial critical responses to this novel were generally negative. This novel relates the story of its hero Ahab's revenge and fighting against an overwhelming monster, the white whale Moby Dick.Herman Melville was greatly influenced by Kant's philosophy when he was composing Moby-Dick. Kant's philosophy systematically elucidates human's proper attitudes towards the noumena, human cognition, morality, objects that arouse the sublime feeling in people etc. Inspired by Herman Melville's various philosophical speculations in Moby-Dick, this thesis intends to make a comparison of the major characters Ahab and Ishmael's different attitudes towards the noumena, human cognition, morality and objects that arouse the sublime feeling in people from the perspective of Kantian Philosophy to explore the reasons for Ahab and Ishmael's different fates in the end of the novel and figure out Melville's suggestion for human's proper life attitudes in this world. By using Kant's philosophy as the theoretical framework, this thesis compares Ahab and Ishmael from Kant's ontology, epistemology, morality and sublimity, pointing out the futility of human understanding on the thing-in-itself or the noumena, the relativity and subjectivity of human understanding, the moral obligation of rational human beings and the proper aesthetic appreciation of the sublime.This thesis is divided into six parts. The introduction part provides a literature review of Melville and Moby-Dick and puts forward the author's research subject. Chapter one introduces Kant's philosophy of ontology, epistemology, morality and sublimity and Herman Melville's life and thoughts. Following the theoretical framework, the second chapter compares Ahab and Ishmael's attitudes toward the noumena and human cognition. The third chapter discusses Ahab's violation of Kant's morality and Ishmael's obedience of Kant's morality. The fourth chapter explores Ahab's hatred toward the sublimity of the white whale and Ishmael's realization and appreciation of the sublimity of the white whale. From Ahab and Ishmael's different fates caused by their different life attitudes, the final part concludes that our proper responses to the outside world and human existence should be the acceptance of the futility of human understanding on the thing-in-itself, the tolerance of the relativity and subjectivity of human understanding, the undertaking of moral obligation, and the appreciation of the objects that arouse the sublime feeling in people.