Tragic-spirit-of-Ahab.doc

Tragic spirit of Ahab's character
Many people would think of “madness” when they are asked for only one word to summarize Ahab's character. For madness is considered as “the final expression of his nobility and the furthest thrust of his sea instinct". He once says, "They think me mad — Starbuck does; But I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened!”He is not just insane as a common mad man. His madness is a result of his monomania.
Ahab's monomania is presented in his strong decision to revenge himself on Moby Dick for the loss of one of his leg. In his mind, Moby Dick is the agent of evil and the enemy. To destroy it is to clean the world of sins. He has sworn to hunt to the death of the great whale, and would not lose any opportunity of finding it.In Ahab’s heart, there is only hatred and desire for revenge left. The death of Moby Dick is more than anything else.
Monomania is a dominating characteristic of Ahab, which preys on his other virtues.Ahab’s monomania is caused by mutilation. His monomania makes it the reason of his existence to pursuit the white whale. However, the monomial of Ahab is not a kind of common madness, but a kind of concentration, persistence, fortitude and uniqueness. It makes him the tragic hero figure and that is the critical point to reflect his nobility.
Ahab’s humanity was mainly demonstrated in his attitude towards his family and the black sailor, Pip. Ahab is an experienced captain who started his sea career when he was a teenager. In addition, he has a warm family with a wife and a lovely child. Although he is occupied by the hatred for Moby Dick and the desire of revenge, he often thinks of his families during the chasing for the whale. Because of the long time life on sea, Ahab was unable to attend his families all the time, which makes him deeply ashamed.
For the complex that afflicts Ahab, he embodies a form of sickness, but in doing so he embodies also a form of tragedy. The two originate and eventuate together. However, Ahab is not only the sick self. He is a representative of his time and place. He is modern man, and particularly American man, in his role as “free” and “independent” individual, as self-sustaining and self-assertive ego. He owns his forcible will and unbending purpose, which is also enlarged by both his vices and his strength to dimensions of legendary grandeur.
According to the critic M. H. Abrams, such a tragic hero “move us to pity because, since he is not an evil person, his misfortune is greater than he deserves; but he moves us also to fear, because we recognize similar possibilities of error in our own lesser and fallible selves.”