August 26, 2019 - Chapter One Hundred Thirty-two


This is the final chapter before the hunt of Moby Dick begins (yes – we will finally hunt the white whale beginning tomorrow). We learn a bit more about Ahab in this chapter, e.g., his marriage: “away, whole oceans away, from that young girl-wife I wedded past fifty, and sailed for Cape Horn the next day, leaving but one dent in my marriage pillow.” So the son that Ahab has was presumably conceived on his wedding night and Ahab has pretty much never been home since.

Upon seeing Ahab’s despair, Starbuck urges him to give up the hunt. He begins his plea thus: “Oh, my Captain! my Captain! noble soul! grand old heart, after all!” The line, of course, evokes Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!” The question is which came first – the novel or the poem. Since Whitman’s poem is about the assassination of Lincoln, we know the poem came second.
That said, you can read an interesting exposition of the relationship between the two texts here.

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