NCHS AP English Language

QUESTION NUMBER 9 BY CAILIN LOYD

WHAT DOES FEDALLAH'S NAME MEAN!?


Well, there are many different views on the symobolism behind Fedallah, Ahab's supernaturally skilled harpooner and prophet, such as that he is the "devil" in diguise or the product of Melville's attempt to incorporate an extremely orthodoxical religious figure into the novel to reveal the strict orthodox's church's negative aspects during his time period (http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9831(197211)44%3A3%3C385%3AZATFSI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V).

However, Fedallah's name can be logically translated as "the sacrifice of God" in Arabic, which can be loosely attributed to something God has forsaken, which is Satan, or the devil and all of his evil doings. Fedallah's diobolical presence on the Pequod as well as his secretive nature with the crew and fire tendencies coincide with the meaning of his name, which eliminates a tie with the divine good but aligns him with the ultimate evil, or Satan. His presence on the Pequod stablizes Ahab's short tempered and irrational tendencies, but even with his cooling presence with Ahab, Fedallah prophesizes about Ahab's death and in that regard brings the second idea of death for the Pequod's voyage, the first being in the prophet,Elijah, who had prophesized death to all the crew but one, to Ishmael in the beginning chapters of the novel.



BY CAILIN LOYD

posted by Lisa @ 2:56 PM