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摘 要

赫尔曼·麦尔维尔的《白鲸》是一部有关生态预言的小说，对人与自然的关系作了深刻独到的探讨。本文尝试从生态批评的角度出发，通过对作品主要人物形象、重要故事情节、环境氛围等的分析，挖掘作品暗藏的生态启示。

本论文分为六个部分。第一部分介绍赫尔曼·梅尔维尔的生平、简述《白鲸》的主要故事内容以及生态批评的基本理念。第二部分介绍国内外对其作品的研究状况。第三及第四部分分别从分析主要人物形象，辅以重要故事情节挖掘其中的生态启示。第五部分分析的是《白鲸》中人与自然的和谐及人与人的和谐。第六部分是对全文的回顾和总结。

关键词：《白鲸》；赫尔曼·梅尔维尔；和谐；人与自然；人与人

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Human Being’s Contempt on Nature 3

3.1 Ahab’s Contempt on Nature 3

3.2 Crews’ Hunting of Whales 4

4. Revenge by Nature 6

4.1 Moby-Dick"s Threat to Human Beings 6

4.2 Environment’s Revenge on Human Beings 7

5. Harmony in Moby Dick 8

5.1 Harmony between Man and Nature 8

5.2 Harmony between Man and Man 9

6. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

Introduction

Herman Melville is viewed as one of the most distinguished writers in American literature and also one of the most influential writers in world literature history. However, his whole life was filled with setbacks and his achievements were not greatly lightened until his death for thirty years long. Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819. Due to his father went bankrupt, he was pulled into poverty at a stroke and finished his four years’ school learning that he had little regular education. During the following fifteen years, he has used to work as bank clerk, farm worker and village teacher, during which, he has known whether it was cold or warm by himself. In 1837, he started his voyage life which stimulated his great desire for voyage. Hereafter, in 1839, 1841 and 1842, he worked as a sailor one after another. Although without regular education, his rough life and four-year sea adventures have become the “Yale” and “Harvard” which provided continuous sources during his creation.

Moby Dick, the masterpiece of Herman Melville, which was published in 1851, didn’t attract his contemporary especially the literature critics’ concern. But after his death, the study of Moby Dick has almost exceeded all the other novels in American literature. Moby Dick is a long novel full of morals that it is such profound and set people thinking. The plot of the story is not complex. Through the only survivor of the voyage—Ishmael, he narrates a metaphorical story about the Captain of Pequod Ahab.

Ahab has one purpose: revenge on Moby Dick, a ferocious, enigmatic white whale which on a previous voyage destroyed Ahab"s ship and severed his leg at the knee. However, eventually he loses his life and leads the other sailors to death with the white whale. Melville succeeds in expanding the fight between a specific man and a whale to the fight between human and nature, the most dreadful and dangerous ally and enemy. Meanwhile, the writer’s high concern about ecological crisis and human survival could be seen everywhere in the novel.

The thesis gives a study of Moby Dick from ecological criticism by analyzing of main characters, important plots and environmental atmosphere. As a criticism trend, ecological criticism originates from America. The concept when it was put forward could be traced back to the 1970s. It was put forward by Joseph W. Meeker in 1974. His The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology presents the concept and claims that “people should study the relationship between man and other species” and “carefully and seriously examine and explore the literary impact of human behavior and the natural environment”. (Meeker, 1974: 3) In 1996, Glotfelty wrote that “Briefly speaking, Ecological criticism studies the relation between literature and natural environment. Just as feminism criticism starts from gender, investigates the relation between language and literature; Marxist criticism takes production mode, economy and class into the interpretation of text; ecological criticism is based on the Earth to study literature”. (Glotfelty, 1996: 18) To the narrator, ecological criticism means exploring the relationship between human beings and nature from ecological perspective by studying the literature works.

Literature Review

As one of the classic novels of romanticism in nineteenth century, Moby Dick is a masterpiece merged adventure, philosophy and research together which has aroused all kinds of people’s great concern. Nowadays there are numerous researches about Melville and his Moby Dick, these researches deeply excavates works of religion, history, politics, aesthetics, linguistics, literature, economy and so on.

In 1940s and 1950s, a large number of reviews on Melville came out. One of the most famous psychological interpretations of Melville’s Moby Dick is Henry Murray’s In Nomine Diaboli. In the article, Murray reveals confusion of modern psychiatric disorders from a psychological point of view of Ahab’s paranoid behavior. In 1950, Newton Arvin published a short biography named Herman Melville, analyzing the magnificent features of Herman Melville and the characteristic structure, symbolism and ambiguous language in Moby Dick.

In china, most of the studies tend to focus on symbolism in Moby Dick, which mainly analyzes major symbols of the novel such as Ahab, the white whale of its whiteness and the only survivor Ishmael. Li Ying’s The Multiple Symbolic Meaning of Moby Dick (Li Ying, 2003: 16) attempts to probe into interpretations of the symbols in Moby Dick, such as the whaling ship Pequod, the whole voyage, Captain Ahab and so on. Besides, Chinese scholar’s study on ecological theory of literature and art has reaped abundantly since 1994 with quite a number of works published. Among which, scholars Lu Shuyuan, Zeng Yongcheng, Wang Nuo are outstanding representatives. Lu Shuyuan’s Ecological Research in Literature and Art (Lu Shuyuan, 2000: 18) advocates trichotomy of Eco-literature, namely natural ecology, spiritual ecology and social ecology.

Human Being’s Contempt on Nature

3.1 Ahab’s Contempt on Nature

In Moby Dick, Ahab shows his contempt on and pessimistic attitude to nature. He indignantly resents the white whale and his only purpose is to kill it. Firstly, Ahab has no respect for nature, what’s more, this gray-hair and superior old man disparages the white whale as “a white-headed whale with a twisted jaw; the white-headed whale with three holes through one of his fins”. (Li Xiangui, 2005: 21) His leg is made at sea from the polished bone of a whale’s jaw and his chair is made from the bone of a whale. All these definitely reflect his contempt on and hatred on the white whale. Besides, after losing one of the legs, Ahab presents his strong decision to revenge on Moby Dick. “Ever since that fierce battle, Ahab had nurses a wild desire for revenge against the whale, and at last began to see in him everything that is evil.” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 27) Here using one word to summarize Ahab’s character, most probably it should be “madness”. In fact, in their voyage, Ahab has many chances to turn back but every time he refuses for his crazy desire for killing the white whale. He has been told more than once that Moby Dick has super nature strength and the only result of fighting against it is death. As Starbuck persuades: “God is against you! It is an evil voyage! Evilly begun, evilly continued. Turn the ship while we may, and sail for home!” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 102) However, he does not accept others’ advice, “Talk not to me of offences against God, man, I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. I will satisfy my hate against the whale!” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 23) His crazy hostility makes him blind to the dreadful destiny of his revenge, but will lead his crews to death at last.

In Moby Dick, for his personal enmity, Ahab disregards the lives of the crew but insists on killing the white whale. The reason why he is such stubborn is anthropocentrism. Just as Tian Ning said that: “In human’s disparaging attitude towards nature, Captain Ahab is a typical representative of anthropocentrism.” (Tian Ning, 2010: 84) Typically, he is the representative of human’s inflated desire for conquest as the development of industrialization and modernization. He could not bear the pain for being defeated by the white whale which is thought as evil. He considers these things live in nature as evil that only human beings are the master so that his loss of one leg brought him plenty of shame. Here, Melville ingeniously uses Ahab’s image, thought and his behavior to symbolize how human beings treat the nature as evil and enemy. “In the Captain’s mind, he is the incarnation of justice, conscience and truth; he wants to stand for all the things that contrasting vicious, to fight the white devil, even though to be a mass of bruises.” (Bai Xihan, 2000: 14)

The fight between Ahab and the white whale shows that the destiny of man fighting against nature is joint destruction. Nature comes into being much earlier than human beings, more than this, human beings grow, multiply and live on nature. In turn, after enjoying nature’s breed, human beings use their wisdom to change, improve and create the world better that the nature becomes more beautiful. Though nowadays, under the rapid development of human being’s technology, modernization, which has strengthen human beings’ power on some aspect. Still, human beings can not defeat nature because nature has its absolute super power. Here, through the novel, Melville tells us that the consequence of fight with nature is joint destruction. Neither human beings nor the nature could defeat each other.

3.2 Crews’ Hunting of Whales

Ishmael is a primary school teacher on land, he decides to be a whaling hand on the ocean because of his dull mood. However his ocean whaling experience makes his voyage into a ravaged soul and spirit travel because of human’s brutal predatory. First of all, in his eyes, human beings are full of contempt for the marine organisms. All the inns opened in Nantucket Harbor names are the fish. Most of the crews and the captain he sees are those who extremely despise and biological kill marine fish. Ahab is crazy about killing the white whale that sheared off his one leg. He calls on Moby Dick a thing inserted a few head of javelin. In his heart, human is superior that it’s a great insult for being hurt by natural living beings. From his eyes, people all more or less look down on the marine organisms that it reflects people’s contempt on nature.

Besides, Starbuck, the captain’s chief officer on the Pequod, has no liking for lowering a boat to hunt a whale after sunset, nor for fighting a fish that goes on fighting him. As a man of reason, Starbuck deals with the whales from the economic perspective. For him, whaling provides a way for making a living. Starbuck clearly expresses his purpose that “I am on the ocean to kill whales for my living, not to be killed by them for theirs.” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 16) This shows that for him, whaling on the sea is simply for economic interest. In his eyes, nature only serves as a resource for the living. This slightly shows that he looks down on the white whale because in his heart the white whale just satisfies his needs for living.

In the novel, when Ahab nails the coin to the mast, which is seen as a reward for the man who finds the white whale, all the crews except Starbuck are crazy about finding and killing the white whale. They disregard former deaths caused by Moby Dick for they don’t think such a whale would be strong as they are. They cry and curse it, this somehow reveals their contempt for the white whale.

For the crew’s attitudes towards the white whale, Melville implies their tragic destruction by pointing out the deaths under the white whale. To compare this to the modern society, the narrator concludes that if human beings do not take control of their own greed, timely reflection of human centered consciousness of self, then, what’s waiting for them will be the tragic perish of human beings and nature together.

Revenge by Nature

4.1 Moby Dick"s Threat to Human Beings

Moby Dick, a character full of power is the personification of nature. Melville writes that “Whoever among you raises a cry for a white-headed whale with a twisted jaw...” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 21) and “For it...that distinguished him from other whales, but a peculiar white head and high, white curved back” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 27) Such descriptions show that the white whale is different from other whales. The writer purposely portrays the whale differing from other general whales especially his white color. The whiteness of the whale can have traditional meanings such as innocence and purity. However, the white can also be thought as a characterization of albinism and the death hidden under its attractive appearance. Pagan considers it as sea monster; the madman Gabriel sees it as God’s incarnation; Ahab serves it as enemy and Ishmael thinks it represents cruel nature and wild universe.

Before seeing Moby Dick, there are several stories spread among them, such as “Many who had heard of Moby Dick at first lowered their boats to hunt him as fearlessly as they would any other whale. But as accidents followed one another in these attacks-broken limbs, lost legs, deaths.” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 24) It succeeds in bringing Moby Dick a mysterious and supernatural appearance. However, it is his unusual size, his strange color, and his twisted lower jaw that makes the whale so much feared, so much as the evil cleverness, he has shown over and over again in his attacks. It is in everywhere and it could be in different parts of the world at one and the same time. It is immortal, people can’t kill it. Although being hit by the harpoon, it still lives and finally kills Ahab. Here, Moby Dick becomes a mysterious power that is hostile to human beings.

Besides, in the novel, Moby Dick is described as the embodiment of nature. Melville makes the white whale an immortal creature and emphasizes its evilness. In Ahab’s eyes, all most distressing and cruelest things, all truths with evil intentions, all

mysteries about life and unbelievable tales of supernatural beings come out of this Moby Dick. However, some whalemen on the Pequod think Moby Dick represents purity, innocence and vitality. Sometimes it is evil, and sometimes it is benevolent; it symbolizes horrible things while it also symbolizes trueness. Moby Dick is at the same time a combination of contrariety and contradiction. Thus it is combined with good and evil sides like nature. Whalemen fighting against Moby Dick just likes fighting against the nature. Nature can’t be defeated which means man won’t control nature.

4.2 Environment’s Revenge on Human Beings

Human beings despise and injure nature, in turn, they will be punished by nature. In Moby-Dick, Melville vividly describes the disastrous consequences for human’s killing of whales. Ishmael sees plenty of cemeteries that commemorate died seaman and many depressed widows who lose her husband. Every year many whaling ships are knocked by whale and thousands of seamen die at sea. Captain Ahab loses one leg during a voyage severed by a white whale and after that he takes an artificial leg. The inevitable result of his crazy killing of the white whale is his crowning calamity by nature. In the confrontation with nature, human beings only swallow defeat. In a word, whaling men don’t indulge in the nature of their victory. For each such victory, nature revenge on them. Through Ishmael’s narrative, Melville has indicated the tragic ending of Ahab’s revenge. Along the way they hunt the whale, they often suffer from high winds, rolling waves and some ominous sign, all of which predict their destruction of the death in the sea.

In the novel, descriptions of the weather also well predict the tragic ending. The novel begins with “It was a dark and stormy night and miserably cold”. “Blocks of blackness, rather than houses, on either side. At this hour of the night the town seemed empty.” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 5) These lay a foundation of key of the tragedy. Besides, descriptions of the sea also indicate that its voyage would bring death. “The great waves of the all-powerful sea; the hollow roar they made as they rolled; the short pause of the boat as it hung for an instant on the knife-like edge of a wave that almost seemed threatening to cut it in two; the sudden dip into the watery valleys and hollows; the efforts to reach the top of the opposite hill; then slide down its other side; all these, with the cries of the steersmen and harpooneers and the shouts of the oarsmen, with the sight of the ...” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 35) Melville writes the sea in details to reveal dangers in the sea and human’s puniness under nature’s power. They could do nothing but controlled by the sea which indicates that human beings can’t defeat nature. What’s more, their boat strikes on an island and all the crews are thrown into the creamy water of the storm. This just confirms that Melville’s believe that man’s fight against nature would be a failure.

In summary, it is not difficult to find out that in the fight between man and nature, nature has super power that man can not win. Melville, through his descriptions of the sea, the white whale indicates that man can’t defeat nature. If human beings can’t put themselves in the right place or still contempt on nature, humans will face its extinction.

5. Harmony in Moby Dick

5.1 Harmony between Man and Nature

Ishmael, the only survivor, has realized the brutality of human and obtained the inner harmony unrealized by Ahab. At the beginning of the novel, Ishmael says that: “It is a way I have of raising my spirits when they are low; I take to a ship quietly.” (Li Xiangui, 2005: 4) Besides, he reveals that it is nothing surprising because almost all men in some degree, some time or other, share the same feelings towards the oceans likes him. It is not difficult to notice that Ishmael narrates as the voice of Melville. Here, Melville has already indicates to us that the relationship between man and nature is intimate. Besides, Zhou Ru said that: “His fantasy of ocean and whale projects his vision of nature before he goes on board the Pequod, which further motivates Ishmael to make meditation on the relationship between man and nature.” (Zhou Ru, 2011: 20)

After he goes on board the Pequod, Ishmael finds out that Ahab shows contempts for nature and thinks human beings are superior to nature. However, Ahab’s vision on nature does not disturb Ishmael’s thought on it. Even though he has attended the voyage to revenge against Moby Dick, Ishmael separates himself from the crew and keeps himself thinking and self-examining. During the rest of the voyage, Ishmael becomes the dominant character. Through reflection on the distinctive experience of the crews and the observation of Moby Dick, he develops an ecological view and extends his compassion to the whales. Ishmael sees the whales with some characteristics of humans. His ecological awareness affirms the inherent worth of the whales and their equal position in the ecosystem as human beings.

Through Ishmael, Melville’s attitude towards man and nature becomes clear. He profoundly hopes that men and the white whale can live in peace with each other. The symbolic meaning of the ending makes Melville’s message clearer. The joint destruction of both Ahab and Moby Dick implies the message that nature and human can never defeat each other, and men are not allowed to “strip the nature of its original balance, which is the very foundation for the survival of both parties.” (Melville, 1999: 95)

In summary, the survival of Ishmael in the end is the result of his harmonious thought between man and nature. Ahab’s death is due to his fight against nature which means confrontation between man and nature. By comparing their totally different destiny, Herman Melville makes a thorough and original study of the relation between man and nature. Throughout Moby Dick, Melville also displays the transformation of man-nature relation, from the original harmony to the ecological imbalance, then to the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Though he does not speak explicitly in the novel, Melville indicates the ideal relationship is to live harmonious with nature and use nature with a grateful heart.

5.2 Harmony between Man and Man

Just as the relationship between man and nature can refract the ecological idea, the writer’s portrait of man and man’s relationship also refracts the ecological idea. As a great writer of ecological awareness, Melville praises highly of the intimacy between man and man, especially the touching friendship between Ishmael and the harpooneer Queequeg, which expresses his thought of harmony in man and man.

In the novel, when Ishmael firstly sees Queequeg, he is frightened by his face with “dark purple-yellow color, with a pattern of black squares”. (Li Xiangui, 2005: 7) But dramatically, they finally become intimate friends that “Queequeg’s arm thrown over Ishmael in the most loving way”. (Li Xiangui, 2005: 9) During the following day and night, Ishmael knows Queequeg more. “Ugly his patterned face might seem, but you cannot hide the soul. I saw he had a simple honest heart, and a spirit that would dare a thousand devils”. (Li Xiangui, 2005: 11) What’s more, in the latter part of the book, Ishmael intends to tattoo like the cannibals and will live as a savage. Ishmael’s friendship with Queequeg verifies the writer’s ideas of harmony in man and man.

Besides, Ishmael escapes form the joint deaths with the crews for he loves the cannibal Queequeg and loves the nature. At last, he survives because of his friendship with Queequeg and nature’s magic power. He seizes Queequeg’s coffin and miraculously swims pass the whales and eagles to a safe place.

In summary, the writer favors people’s harmonious relationship. From his description of friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg and Ishmael’s last survival, he expresses that harmony in man and man could also save men themselves. In today’s world, though with the rapid development of material life, people don’t enjoy their spiritual life. Modern technical products, high-rise buildings and competitive life separates people from each other which might have break the harmony in man and man. From the novel, Melville gives the right way about people’s self-rescue. It is love others, respect others.

6. Conclusion

The thesis has tried to probe into the study of Moby Dick from the perspective of ecological criticism. In this thesis, based on careful analysis of main characters, important plots and environmental atmosphere, the narrator interprets the ecological notions held by three main characters, Captain Ahab, the white whale and the only survivor Ishmael, and analyzes the different fates so as to find out the ecological enlightenments of man and nature.

Ahab’s doomed failure, the white whale’s death as well as Ishmael’s survival impress readers. Ahab overestimated his ability, treating nature as his enemy. What’s more, his conflict with Moby Dick leads to his death. The white whale full of power is the embodiment of nature. It has absolute power that the only consequence of fighting against it was death. To the only survivor Ishmael, the voyage of hunting the white whale has attributed to his ecological ethics enlightenments. By thinking deeply on Ahab’s revenge and his experience of killing the whales, Ishmael becomes mature and humane.

Melville reveals his ecological thought embodied in the novel through the death of Ahab, the death of Moby Dick and the survival of Ishmael: man and nature coexist and they share life and death together. If human beings pursue blindly of the conquest of nature, it will inevitably lead to the ecological tragedy as joint destruction.

Having said so much about the relationship between men and nature, there is still much worth discussing in the novel, such as religion, symbolism and so on. Thus to fully comprehend this novel still requires a lot of research.

Works Cited

[1] Arvin, Newton. Herman Melville. Toronto: William Sloane Associates, 1950.

[2] Glotfelty Camp; Fromm H. The Eco-criticism Reader: Landmark in Literary Ecology. Athens: The University of Press, 1996.

[3] Meeker J W. The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.

[4] Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. Tennessee: Tennessee Press, 1999.

[5] Murry, Henry. In Nomine Diaboli. New York: G.K. Hall amp;Co., 1992.

[6] 田宁. 《lt;白鲸gt;中亚哈的悲剧之生态解读》. 电影文学，18（2010）：84-85.

[7] 李先规. 《白鲸记》. 北京：中国书籍出版社，2005.

[8] 李英. 《lt;莫比迪克gt;的象征意义》.黑龙江社会科学，3（2003）：16-18.

[9] 白锡汉. 《论lt;白鲸gt;的悲剧实质》. 四川外语学院学报，4（2000）：14-17.

[10] 周如. 《麦尔维尔lt;白鲸gt;的生态伦理解读》. 广西大学，9（2011）：20.

[11] 鲁枢元.《生态文艺学》. 西安：陕西人民出版社，2000.

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