As Melville, in Moby Dick, takes several methodic breaks
with the plot to give us some ‘learned’ as well as first or second hand
experiences about the whaling world, in chapter 54 he takes a break as to give
us some knowledge about the human world.
Since the human world can be sought after through actions
rather than encyclopedic knowledge, Melville takes the methodic break in
chapter 54 in order to teach us a lesson about the nature of human beings,
namely of pride, ego and their result – violence and the fate of human vengeance.
Melville uses the figure of Ishmael in order to tell us a
story, as if slightly connected by temporal relation to the story we have just
left on the Pequod – the two boats passed each other. But from there, we arrive to a social event
in Lima, which sets the background for a story, taken from the whales-shipping
world, of a modern Caine and Habel, told by the all-knowing narrator to the
Dons around him. Stilkilt, not willing to let a petty ego-bruising go, and
Radney who had in vain tried to base his authority over the rebellious officer,
have declared a bloody war upon the seas over their bruised egos. But in the
end, Stilkilt doesn’t manage to produce his sought-after vendetta since Randy
is captured and murdered by a whale, Moby Dick, perhaps. Is it not but a
warning for Ahab and us readers, for what is yet to come, when a man cries “who
is upon me” and vows to takes vengeance where it is not within his domain?
Men's place in the hell that will in all probablity ensnue on the Pequod is partly made by their own antics.
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