Herman Melville (1819-1891)
Biography
Herman Melville was born in New York City in 1819 to Allan Melvill and
MariaGansevoort. At thirteen, Melville was forced to drop out of school
after his father accumulated major debt then suddenly passed away “in
delirium.” Melville worked many odd jobs before he set sail for the first time
in 1839. A few years later, Melville and his friend, TobyGreene, jumped ship
at the Marquesas Islands where they supposedly lived among cannibals.He
was only there a few months before an Australian whaler picked him up.
After Melville joined the United States Navy for a brief time, he began
writing his first book, Typee(1846), with his brothers. This book kick-started
his career in England and the UnitedStates.The next five years included his
most successful pieces: Omoo (1847), Mardi (1849), Redburn (1849), WhiteJacket (1850), and MobyDick (1851). In the midst of his success, Melville married Elizabeth Knapp Shaw, the daughter of the chief justice of the MassachusettsSupreme Court, and became close friends with a fellow writer, Nathanial Hawthorne. Though his popularity was growing, Melville’s income was plummeting. Pierre (1852) was his next novel, which almost ended his career. Its wildly controversial subjects made people believe Melville was insane, which was not entirely false. Many accounts describe his violent mood swings and outbursts, which were only exacerbated when he drank. From 1857-1876, Melville was mostly a poet; though, he lectured periodically for extra money. When Judge Shaw died in 1861, the Melville’s inherited his estate, which eased their financial stress temporarily. Melville’s life took a depressing turn after this; his marriage was rocky, his job did not pay well, his poetry was not successful, then his son committed suicide. Just when his depression started to improve, his second son was found dead in a hotel room. Shortly before Melville’s death in 1891, there was a revival of interest into his work. However, the true Melville revival did not come until the 1920s.
Works by Herman Melville
Typee (1846) / White Jacket (1850) / Piazza Tales (1856) / John Marr and Other Sailors (1888)Omoo (1847) / Moby Dick (1851) / The Confidence Man (1857) / Timoleon (1891)
Mardi (1849) / Pierre (1852) / Battle Pieces (1866) / Billy Budd (1924)
Redburn (1849) / Israel Potter (1855) / Clarel (1876) / Uncollected Prose (1839-1856)
Critical Bibliography
Durer, Christopher S. “Mocking the ‘Grand Programme’: Irony and after in ‘Moby Dick.’” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, vol. 36, no. 4, 1982, pp. 249–258.
Fee, Tara Robbins. "Irreconcilable Differences: Voice, Trauma, and Melville's Moby-Dick." Mosaic: A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 45.4 (2012): 137-53. Web.
Meyers, Jeffrey. "Moby-Dick and Seven Pillars of Wisdom." Notes on Contemporary Literature, vol. 42, no. 2, 2012. Literature Resource Center,
Schillace, Brandy. "A Man's Soul and a Fish's Scale: Sex, Size and Spirit in Moby Dick." Journal of Men, Masculinities & Spirituality, vol. 6, no. 2, June 2012, pp. 94-105. EBSCOhost.
Thompson, Lawrance Roger. Melville's Quarrel with God. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1952. Print.
Vaught, Carl G. “RELIGION AS A QUEST FOR WHOLENESS: MELVILLE'S MOBY-DICK.” The Journal of General Education, vol. 26, no. 1, 1974, pp. 9–35.
A Summary of Carl G. Vaught’s “Religion as a Quest for Wholeness: Melville’s Moby Dick” (The Journal of General Education (26:1 (April 1974): pp. 9-35))
Vaught believes Moby Dick is a metaphorical exemplar of the personal journey toward finding religion and devoting oneself to those beliefs. He bases his argument on this initial assumption: “the religious dimension of a man’s existence may be understood as a human quest” (10). The person starts in a fragmentary state, then embarks on a journey toward wholeness. Vaught ensures this is the main theme due to the prevalence of biblical references throughout the story. He gives three dimensions for his argument: “the universal call of the ocean, the particular condition of Ishmael, and the virtual boundlessness of the sea” (16).
Vaught considers the ocean to be a symbol for religion and self-discovery. In the first paragraph, Ishmael explains how the ocean is his cure to what seems to be depression, then posits that “all men… cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me” (Norton 1441). This is followed by the detailed description of Manhattan residents who fixate on the sea in their unique ways. Vaught argues this variety represents the many different approaches to religion and to what degree people link their lifestyle to their religion.
Ishmael’s character is also a strong indicator of a deeper religious meaning. The biblical Ishmael was an outcast who was “required to wander about as a wild man” (12). Vaught argues that Moby Dick’s Ishmael has the same tendencies, which are illuminated as early as the second sentence of the book: “Some years ago… having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world” (Norton 1440). Once he became truly connected to the sea, Ishmael explains how he cannot be “a passenger,” but rather “a sailor” (Norton 1443). Vaught believes Ishmael is making the distinction between one who is an idle, passive believer and one who is actively participating in his religion – Ishmael being the latter.
The third dimension of Vaught’s argument asserts that the “virtual boundlessness of the sea” represents the insatiable human desire to discover oneself (16). This need is dissected in the reference to Narcissus, who became obsessed with his reflection. Ishmael argues this happened because Narcissus “could not graspthe tormenting, mild image he saw in the fountain” (Norton 1442). Vaught argues this is not a lack of understanding for the physical self, but one’s intangible identity – what Ishmael refers to as “the ungraspable phantom of life” (Norton 1442).