NCHS AP English Language

Chapter 36- Alissa Davis and Lindsay Miller

1. "Drink and pass!" he cried, handing the heavy charged flagon to the nearest seaman. "The crew alone now drink. Round with it, round! Short draughts- long swallows, men; 'tis hot as Satan's hoof. So, so; it goes round excellently. It spiralizes in ye; forks out at the serpent-snapping eye. Well done; almost drained. That way it went, this way it comes. Hand it me- here's a hollow! Men, ye seem the years; so brimming life is gulped and gone. Steward, refill!
* This passage can be explicated in one particular way. It is a death-filled literary tale. "Satan's hoof", "serpent-snapping eye", "brimming life is gulped and gone", all these quotes speak of death or murder. Satan's hoof directly references the devil. Serpent-snapping eye, a serpent correlates to Lucifer, as in the Garden of Eden he appeared as a snake, thus, another parallel to the devil. Last, "brimming life gulped and gone" states clearly about how swiftly life is enveloped or swallowed (maybe as by a whale?) and demolished. *

2. "Now, three to three, ye stand. Commend the murderous chalices! Bestow them, ye who are now made parties to this indissoluble league. Ha! Starbuck! but the deed is done! Yon ratifying sun now waits to sit upon it. Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow- Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!" The long, barbed steel goblets were lifted; and to cries and maledictions against the white whale, the spirits were simultaneously quaffed down with a hiss. Starbuck paled, and turned, and shivered. Once more, and finally, the replenished pewter went the rounds among the frantic crew; when, waving his free hand to them, they all dispersed; and Ahab retired within his cabin.
* This passage is another death-filled, murderous tale. It is also blasphemous almost and taunting. Certain quotes explicated are "murderous chalices", "deathful whaleboat's bow", "Death to Moby Dick!", "God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!", and "the spirits were simlutaneously quaffed down with a hiss". Ahab speaks of their goblets as murdersome, linking the crew to killing and death. Next, he calls their boat a boat of death, almost like it is the personified form of Death, bringing itself to Moby Dick. "Death to Moby Dick" links them to death obviously. The next line is crucial. He taunts God, blasphemes. He almost challenges or dares God to kill them all if they do not kill Moby Dick. Now, if one views Moby Dick as God, in a sense, the God of the macrocosm here, then, they are telling it to kill them if they do not kill him first. He is challenging the whale and God to a fight, and no one defeats God. Lastly, the spirits, or drink, is quaffed down with a hiss. Mayhaps, one could correlate this to their spirits or souls instantaneously beign extinguished in one abrupt instant in the future. Foreshadowment bedecks this passage.

3. "Advance, ye mates! Cross your lances full before me. Well done! Let me touch the axis." So saying, with extended arm, he grasped the three level, radiating lances at their crossed centre; while so doing, suddenly and nervously twitched them; meanwhile glancing intently from Starbuck to Stubb; from Stubb to Flask. It seemed as though, by some nameless, interior volition, he would fain have shocked into them the same fiery emotion accumulated within the Leyden jar of his own magnetic life. The three mates quailed before his strong, sustained, and mystic aspect. Stubb and Flask looked sideways from him; the honest eye of Starbuck fell downright.
*In this paragraph, we see a demonic side to Ahab almost. Starbuck's honest eye falls and Stubb and Flask cannot look him in the face, although he is Satan himself, radiating before them. He is almost shocking them with his obsession, as though Satan is almsot possessing them with his demonic forces as well. Everybody feels antsy and nervous, as though in the prescence of something ethereal, alomst as if they are in the prescence of a numinous dread. The whole passage has an otherworldly sense to it as well, "radiating lances", "nameless, interior volition", "fiery emotion", "Leyden jar", "magnetic life", and "strong, sustained, and mystic aspect". All of these are clear references to the ethereal.

4. Receiving the brimming pewter, and turning to the harpooneers, he ordered them to produce their weapons. Then ranging them before him near the capstan, with their harpoons in their hands, while his three mates stood at his side with their lances, and the rest of the ship's company formed a circle round the group; he stood for an instant searchingly eyeing every man of his crew. But those wild eyes met his, as the bloodshot eves of the prairie wolves meet the eye of their leader, ere he rushes on at their head in the trail of the bison; but, alas! only to fall into the hidden snare of the Indian.
* The last statement in this passage basically tells us just what is going to happen in the tale. "the bloodshot eves of the prairie wolves meet the eye of their leader, ere he rushes on at their head in the trail of the bison; but, alas! only to fall into the hidden snare of the Indian." What does this mean? He speaks of how the eyes of the wolves in a pack meet the eye of their alpha male before the alpha male strikes off on the hunt, followed by his pack, only to fall into the trap of a larger predator. This is easily linked to Ahab leading his crew after the path of their prey, only to fall prey first, himself and theirselves, into the trap of a larger predator. This clearly ominously foreshadows the crew's, and Captain Ahab's ultimate defeat in their attempt to kill Moby Dick.

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