Chapters 102–105 Summary

Ishmael provides information on the anatomy of whales. He narrates his experience at Tranque, where the massive skeleton of a whale was being used as a temple. He comments on its massive body. In Chapter 104, he recounts the history of whales, which suggests that the beast has been on earth for innumerable centuries. In Chapter 105, he debates whether the whale can be over-hunted and driven to extinction, which he concludes is impossible because the whale can travel to the earth’s poles, unlike men. Should there be a flood to overwhelm the earth, the whale is best suited to survive.

Chapters 106–108 Summary

Ahab had splintered his artificial leg while leaving the Samuel Enderby hastily. He summons the ship’s carpenter to make him a new one. Ishmael considers all the pain and indignity that Ahab suffer due to his lost limb spring from his monomaniacal pursuit of Moby Dick. The carpenter is a man of many skills but little personality. Ahab is frustrated by his physical dependence on others, especially this carpenter. Ahab abuses him, calling him a blockhead, but the man continues working and fashions a new leg for Ahab.

Chapter 109 Summary

The next morning, Starbuck examines a few of the casks in the hold of the Pequod and thinks there is a leak somewhere. When he tells Ahab that the ship must be stopped and the necessary repairs done, Ahab is not interested and tries to dismiss him saying that the ship’s purpose is to pursue Moby Dick. He runs Starbuck off by threatening him with a musket. A while later, Ahab relents and orders that the ship be stopped for inspection and repairs.

Chapter 110 Summary

While the repairs are being done, Queequeg catches cold and gets feverish. He starts losing weight. Thinking he is going to die, he asks the carpenter to build him a coffin, where he places his harpoon, his idol, and other important possessions. He then lays inside it while Pip dances around it, asking him to look for his former, sane self when he reaches paradise after his death. However, Queequeg decides that he will not die after all and emerges from the coffin, announcing that he has willed himself to recovery after remembering some unfinished business on land. He proceeds to use the coffin as his trunk thereafter and carves the tattoos on his body onto its lid.

Chapters 111–113 Summary

Ishmael is in a meditative state, gazing at the serene water of the Pacific Ocean. The same though cannot be said of Captain Ahab, who is his usual tense self, watching out for the White Whale. Ishmael narrates the story of Perth, the old blacksmith onboard, whose life was destroyed by alcoholism. When he lost all his money, his wife, and children, he took to the sea. Ishmael suggests that many choose the life at sea as a substitute for suicide. Captain Ahab orders the blacksmith to make him a special harpoon with which he can kill his nemesis. He gives him specific directions about how this harpoon should be but then takes on the work himself, hammering the steel on the anvil and tempering it with the blood of the three harpooners instead of water. The scene ends with Pip’s insane laughter ringing through the ship.

Chapter 114 Summary

The soothing ocean inspires Ishmael, Ahab, Starbuck, and Stubb each to deliver individual meditative addresses to the sea.

Chapters 102–114 Analysis

In the first four chapters, Ishmael endeavors to comprehend the whale in its totality. However, just as the Tranque priests claim that God cannot be measured, Ishmael proves that the whale cannot be comprehended in its totality by means of an empirical description of its parts. His conclusion though that the whale will not go extinct is wildly incorrect to modern readers as the whale is indeed an endangered species due to man’s persistent hunting of it. When Ishmael states that the whale is “immortal,” the reader sees the inherent irony in this statement, where even in his times the whale was hunted, resulting in a flourishing whaling industry. The word “immortal” also alludes to the God-like stature of the huge beast, which make men both revere it as well as wish to possess it. In Moby Dick, through various superstitions, beliefs, and fear associated with it, the whale emerges as a profound, multilayered symbol, interpreted in unique ways by all crew members—for some the whale is God, for another his nemesis or Satan.

When Ahab vociferously declares that he is not interested in the profit of the oil, we see another instance of how Ahab can never be persuaded, even if it is his first mate trying to convince him. The underlying tension between Starbuck and Ahab reaches a climax here, which places the values of these respective characters in direct conflict for the first time. While Starbuck continues to remain the voice of reason and pragmatism, arguing for the overall gains of the Pequod, Melville makes it evident that Ahab will continue to make all sorts of sacrifices in order to pursue his objective against Moby Dick. Ahab states that he is already wealthy, which is even more unfortunate for the character who could have lived off his wealth and enjoyed the fruits of his labor. However, he chooses to tread the darker path of revenge, and perhaps he is so egotistical and powerful that the loss of a limb to a mute beast is something he cannot bear, something that he has to avenge to feel complete again.

Queequeg’s coffin—a symbol of death—foreshadows the impending doom that will visit the crew soon. However, unlike Ahab, Queequeg displays an indomitable will to live, to have more faith in himself and the higher power, where an external force can kill him but not any illness. While Ahab steers himself and the crew inexorably toward their death, Queequeg shows remarkable zeal for life. Queequeg’s tattoos and what he carves on the coffin can be interpreted as a record of his tradition, a continuation of his culture and lived experience that will survive after his death (which it indeed does as the coffin survives till the end of the novel).

These chapters also record scenes of high drama alternating with scenes of tranquility and dreamlike peace. Some of these chapters imitate scenes from a play, and we see Melville employing various literary techniques—dialogues, soliloquies, and asides—with increasing frequency, which reminds the reader that Ahab is concocting his own drama and that the quest for Moby Dick is as artificial as a play. The alternate technique of the dream-like addresses with high drama also portrays the life of whaling where the excitement of the hunt is tempered by long periods of watching and waiting.