Rage's Immolation of Sanity

          Again and again in Melville’s densely arranged novel readers encounter the idea that uncontrollable rage not only consumes the soul but eventually the physical host as well. “They think me mad… but I’m demonic, I am madness maddened! That wild madness that’s only calm to comprehend itself!” (Melville, 183). Here Captain Ahab expounds upon his ineffable anger toward a white whale in the form of a portent soliloquy. In one way he is delivering a fatal sentence on himself by declaring the only thing crazier than insanity is him. This idea of rapacious rage  elevating someone to a level higher than the average contour of such a deadly emotion is not as unwonted as it may seem. How often have you, or if you prefer someone you've seen, thrown a puerile fuss because of unfavorable circumstances or interactions with other people? I’d vouchsafe a claim that most if not everyone has at least witnessed this particular behavior, and so the idea of Melville’s batty sea traveler living his doomed life through an ire-plated mask is nothing uncanny.

Moving along, another seemingly fortuitous occasion plays itself out in the figure of a zealous diatribe. “Aye, aye! and I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition’s flames before I give him up” (Melville, 177).  Regardless of the tremulous crew’s growing fear, Captain Ahab refuses to step down from his calloused pedestal of insanity as he informs the sailor of an indomitable mission. This is the point at where Melville’s reader began to understand the intensity of Ahab’s rage, so much so that it’s plausible to theorize that most of his sanity has already been devoured. I believe the author uses this key scene to unveil the manner in which some individuals of his time were pursuing their goals. For example, many “Christians” of the nineteenth century continued to stalk the streets at night looking for prostitutes and other possible “heathens”. I’m sure everyone can instantly picture a judgmental person ready to prey on the less for-tune or the out group people. By portraying Captain Ahab as an impious and conceited man, I believe Melville brings to life the idea that we all must be wary of falling into the trap of arrogance; more than once have I unfairly categorized a human being based on how they act, but as time passes thankfully I’ve gotten better. And this re-deeming quality is something else I like to think Melville encrypted within the words of his idealist tome. 

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