Line #19 Characters/MobyDick


1	Characters appearing in the novel ''Literature/MobyDick''.
2
3	----
4
5	[[foldercontrol]]
6
7	!!Crew of the ''Pequod''
8
9	[[folder: Ishmael]]
10	-> ''"Call me Ishmael."''
11
12	The narrator and sometimes protagonist of the novel, Ishmael is a Manhattan Islander with an apparently chronic desire to sail, which leads him to New Bedford and onto the crew of the ''Pequod.''
13	----
14	* AuthorAvatar: What few details Ishmael gives of his previous life mostly copy Melville's own. Like Ishmael, Melville was born into a well to do New York family, worked as a schoolteacher, and served on a merchant vessel before becoming a whaler.
15	* DeathSeeker: He starts his narration going on about how he goes to work at sea as an alternative to trying to provoke duels or outright commit suicide.
16	* TheEveryman: We don't learn that much about him besides his name.
17	* FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator: He's the narrator of the book but has a very minor role in the story. Once he boards the Pequod, the narration drifts away from his perspective to the point that it essentially becomes an omniscient third-person voice, including descriptions of things that Ishmael couldn't have seen himself. In the penultimate chapter he's even referred to, namelessly, in the third person.
18	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Queequeg. By the cannibal's culture they are married but the HoYay comes mostly from Queequeg while Ishmael sees it as a strong friendship.
19	* MeaningfulName: In the Bible, Ishmael is banished to a desert. Here, he feels an urge to live at sea.
20	* NoNameGiven: An intriguing variation: he does give a name at the beginning of the book, but only instructs the reader to "Call me Ishmael", as opposed to saying "My name is Ishmael". This is often cited as strong evidence that Ishmael is an unreliable narrator. If you can't even be sure that he told the truth about his name, then you can't be sure that he told the truth about anything.
21	* SoleSurvivor: The only survivor of the wreck of the Pequod.
22	* SupportingProtagonist: The major conflict of the book is between Moby Dick and Ahab. Ishmael is only involved because he stepped onto Ahab's boat.
23	* UnluckilyLucky: Is knocked out of Ahab's whaleboat and is the only one who can't make it back onboard. As a result, he's far enough away from the maelstrom to not get sucked under.
24	* UnreliableNarrator: A downplayed version of this trope. There's no reason to question Ishmael's version of events ([[FridgeLogic even though some parts are ones he shouldn't have been around to witness]]), but he's given to lengthy discussions involving the biology of whales, on which topic he is given to idiosyncratic ideas, such as classifying cetaceans like books:
25	-->'''Ishmael''': I take the good old-fashioned ground that the whale is a fish
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder: Captain Ahab]]
29	-> ''[[BlasphemousBoast "There is one God that is Lord over the earth, and one Captain that is lord over the Pequod."]]''
30
31	By far the most famous character in the novel, Ahab is the captain of the ''Pequod'', who has abandoned commercial whaling in favor of his obsession with hunting down and taking revenge on the whale which ate his leg: Moby Dick.
32	----
33	* AdaptationalVillainy: A victim of this in virtually every adaptation, in which he usually spends the whole work doing nothing but getting his crew killed blindly pursuing Moby Dick. But because the titular whale only appears at the very end of a ''very'' long book he spends most of it being a mostly reasonable sea captain. He's also tricked by Fedallah's prophecy to believe that he (and by extension, his crew) will defeat Moby Dick- which might point to him having a few screws loose, but certainly not callous to the lives of his men.
34	* AmbiguouslyEvil: We're not sure what his morality is, but we're pretty sure he's not good.
35	* AnArmAndALeg: Loses his leg to Moby Dick before the story begins, prompting his quest for revenge.
36	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: A realistic expression of this trope. Promotion to captain of a whaling ship means being an exceptional whaler. Ahab earned his position and is generally admired for it.
37	* BadassLongcoat: In most adaptations. Given the fashion of the time, most likely in the book, too.
38	* BigBad: Although Moby Dick is ostensibly the villain, it theoretically only attacks Ahab's crew in self-defense, thus it does not create the conflict and therefore does not fill the role of a big bad. The true cause of the problems in the novel is Ahab himself, and his obsession with killing the whale at all costs, even if it means killing his entire crew.
39	* BrokenAce: He's considered the best captain in Nantucket, a charismatic leader who inspires devotion in his crew, and a skilled whaler despite his advanced years and missing leg. Even so, his dangerous obsession with the white whale proves his undoing.
40	* TheCaptain: Right there in his job description. He's an excellent captain at that, admired by the Pequod's owners and crew alike. That is, except for that one little problem he has.
41	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Deconstructed. His insanity makes him completely unfit to command a vessel and results in the death of himself and all his crew save Ishmael.
42	* CoolOldGuy: The badass is practically a given as captain of a whaling ship, but he's noted as being particularly badass even as such. He's also getting up in his years, and the book regularly refers to him as "old man". Neither age nor disability keep him from casting iron at whales. The age part is actually downplayed a bit considering that we eventually find out that for all Ahab's (and Ishmael's) talk of him being very old, he is actually only 58; closer to middle-aged than truly elderly.
43	* CrazySane: He is a pretty competent [[TheCaptain captain]], and seems perfectly normal until he talks about his AnimalNemesis.
44	* DetrimentalDetermination: Absolutely nothing will stop Ahab from trying to take his revenge on the White Whale, up to and including sacrificing his entire crew to do it. The crew, for their part, both respect and fear Ahab, while at the same time considering him completely out of his mind over his obsession.
45	* DevilInPlainSight: Only Starbuck truly opposes his blatantly bad intentions throughout the book. The other crewmembers find his leadership almost hypnotic even as he leads them to their deaths.
46	* DrivenToMadness: His repeated attempts and failures to kill the nigh-invulnerable titular whale has finally driven him off the deep end. Whereas Captain Boomer takes it in stride as the futility of fighting nature/fate, Ahab becomes obsessed and reckless in his hunt.
47	* EqualOpportunityEvil: If you consider him "evil"; he'll accept any whaler who's willing to go along with his quest for vengeance as part of his crew, regardless of their race or nationality.
48	* EvilCripple: He is a lunatic who recklessly endangers his crew in order to kill the whale that bit off his leg. Amputated leg aside, he's perfectly capable as a captain (the ''Pequod'' can even rig up a way to get him onto the mast) — he's just obsessed with "dismembering his dismemberer."
49	* FalseReassurance: He hears a prophecy that only "hemp" can kill him (i.e. a rope), which he takes to mean he will be hanged on land. He dies when his harpoon line wraps around his neck and drags him into the sea.
50	* FatalFlaw: His obsession with revenge against the title whale costs him his life, his ship, and his crew.
51	* FatherNeptune: A master mariner if there ever was one.
52	* AFatherToHisMen: This obviously goes off the rails in the end, but Ahab is a surprisingly humane and evenhanded captain. His crew is willing to go along with him chasing a terror of the sea for a reason.
53	* FinalSpeech: One of the most famous in English literature:
54	-->'''Ahab''': Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! ''Thus, I give up the spear!''
55	* FreudianExcuse: Heavily implied. [[MysteriousPast What little we know]] about his backstory includes being orphaned as a baby, spending less than three full years on land since he was eighteen, and dueling somebody in a church.
56	* HandicappedBadass: Losing a leg seems to have barely slowed him down.
57	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Accidentally kills himself by getting his neck tangled in a rope attached to a harpoon he [[OhCrap already threw at Moby Dick]]. He gets pulled underwater and drowns as soon as the whale submerges again.
58	* IgnoredEpiphany: Chapter 132 has him consider abandoning the chase for Moby Dick and return home to his family (see below). [[HopeSpot He does not go through with it]].
59	* IHaveAFamily: A wife and son, back in Nantucket.
60	* ImplacableMan: Lost a leg, and it barely slows him down.
61	* TheInsomniac: Type B, forgoing sleep for as long as possible to stay focused on his mission.
62	-->'''Ahab:''' Sleep? That bed is a coffin and those are winding sheets. I do not sleep, I die.
63	* {{Irony}}: Would you believe this vengeful seadog is a Quaker? (A Christian denomination noted for their ''pacifism''.)
64	* KarmicDeath: Dies in the pursuit of his pointless revenge.
65	* TheLeader: The captain of the ''Pequod.''
66	* MayDecemberRomance: Ahab is pushing sixty and married to a woman considerably younger than him (whom he cares almost nothing for).
67	* MarriedToTheJob: Since taking up whaling at eighteen, Ahab figures he has spent less than three years since that time on land, (he's fifty-eight now). He regards his wife and son at home with almost complete indifference.
68	* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Named after King Ahab, described in Literature/TheBible as the worst king Israel ever had. [[LampshadeHanging Ishmael comments on what an unfortunate name it is.]]
69	* NayTheist: He's a Quaker, so he definitely believes God exists. It's just that Ahab would like to get [[KillTheGod God within harpoon range...]]
70	* NeverMyFault: Towards the end, he adopts a fatalist philosophy according to which his obsessions are the work of vast cosmic forces entirely beyond his control.
71	* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Has this attitude toward Moby Dick. Whenever he runs into another whaler that's encountered Moby Dick, the first thing he asks if they got him or not.
72	* OnlyOneName[=/=]NoNameGiven: Known only as Captain Ahab, no surname is ever provided.
73	* PetTheDog: With his MoralityPet Pip.
74	* ThePhilosopher: He can't seem to speak more than two sentences before dissolving into a rant about existentialism.
75	* PragmaticVillainy: The only reason Ahab allows the crew to hunt other whales is to keep up their morale and prevent any ideas of mutiny.
76	* RageAgainstTheHeavens: The author directly states that Ahab has come to project all of the evil in the world onto Moby Dick, as if the white whale is the living personification of evil and bad fortune. Ahab himself acknowledges that he hates the whale that crippled him not so much as a mere whale, but for what it represents: bad luck, fate, the harsh nature of a post-Eden fallen world, whatever you want to call it. Ahab's anger, as the author put it, is the sum total of all of the anger of humanity going back to when Adam was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, anger at an imperfect world in which bad things can happen. Ahab sees the white whale as the living personification of all of this, and thus, something in the flesh which he can actually fight and kill.
77	* RevengeBeforeReason: The TropeCodifier. His only concern is killing Moby Dick, regardless of the negative effects on himself, his crew, or anyone else.
78	* SeadogPegLeg: Captain Ahab is one of the {{Trope Codifier}}s - he lost a leg during a previous whaling voyage while hunting the white whale and now has a grudge against it. In fact, his missing leg is the main force that drives his revenge plot against the titular whale. Notably, Ahab's peg leg was apparently made with ''whalebone''. In fact neither character has this trope as usually portrayed — Silver's leg is missing from the hip, and he moves about on a crutch; Ahab apparently has a mid-thigh amputation, judging by the scene in which he works out sextant shots on a specially-shaped area of his prosthesis. Something of an UnbuiltTrope: Ishmael notes that while adept on the ''Pequod'' he often struggles walking in other environments. He falls over trying to board the ''Samuel Enderby'' and his fake leg needs replacing semi-regularly while on land. It is, to paraphrase Ishmael, a misery that births other miseries.
79	* TakingYouWithMe: Once Moby Dick rams the ''Pequod'', Ahab knows he's going to drown and throws one last harpoon at his nemesis.
80	* ThirdPersonPerson: Constantly refers to himself as "Ahab" for no apparent reason other than dramatic effect.
81	* TragicHero: Universally considered the greatest captain in Nantucket, driven to his doom by his obsession with revenge. His monologues highlight the tragic part, showing the internal struggle between his old, "good" nature, and his new, maimed self driven by vengeance.
82	* TheUnfettered: Is described many times as a monomaniac, willing to do anything to kill Moby Dick.
83	* UnknownRival: Ahab sees Moby Dick as his nemesis. To the monster, Ahab is probably just another harpooner and the Pequod just another ship for him to sink be he provoked or not.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder: Starbuck]]
87	Ahab's first mate, and the calm and steady one on board the ship.
88	----
89	* AintTooProudToBeg: He begs Ahab to stop pursuing Moby Dick, even shedding ManlyTears, but the captain won't listen.
90	* BadassPacifist: He is a good whaler and sturdy but he won't attack another human being even if he is crazy and endangering people.
91	* IHaveAFamily: A wife and son, just like Ahab.
92	* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Despite his misgivings about Ahab's bloodlust for the White Whale, he ultimately can't defy his captain; his begging to give up the chase is as much for Ahab's sake as his own.
93	* NiceGuy: Perhaps the most genuinely kind person on the ''Pequod''.
94	* NumberTwo: To Ahab.
95	* OnlySaneMan: He's the only one to realize how dangerous Ahab's obsession with Moby Dick is.
96	* TheStarscream: Subverted; Starbuck can't bring himself to kill Ahab, even as the captain's mad quest endangers them all.
97	* UndyingLoyalty: To Ahab; it's a big part of what stops him from killing Ahab although he realizes Ahab's obsession will in turn get everyone killed.
98	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: At one point near the end, he's alone with a gun and considers killing Ahab when he realizes that Ahab's RevengeBeforeReason will probably get them all killed, but he relents.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder: Stubb]]
102	Second mate aboard the ''Pequod''. Cheerful and carefree.
103	----
104	* AffablyEvil: As silly as he is, Stubb is arguably more outright malicious than Captain Ahab himself, having repeatedly derived amusement from mocking others' insecurities (such as [[TheNapoleon Flask's height]], [[IgnoreTheDisability Ahab's disability]], and Starbuck's hesitance/passiveness), physically abusing people, and humiliating people (namely, Fleece the cook). Stubb also had a young boy replace an able seaman on his boat, and later genuinely attempted to abandon that young boy at sea for not doing a decent job -- a deed [[EvenEvilHasStandards at which even Ahab was appalled]].
105	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite his many eccentricities, he and his boat get quite a few whales killed.
106	%%* CloudCuckoolander: Sometimes.
107	* DissonantSerenity: He never stops acting jovial, even when killing whales.
108	* EveryoneHasStandards: When he finds out Captain Gardiner's son is missing, he's appalled and wants the ''Pequod'' to help find the missing whaleboat.
109	* OralFixation: Never seen without his pipe.
110	[[/folder]]
111
112	[[folder: Flask]]
113	Third mate aboard the ''Pequod''. Hunts whales as if they've insulted him deeply.
114	----
115	* BigEater: Subverted due to the custom followed by Ahab and the mates at mealtime. Each man summons his subordinate to the table, and they return to the deck in reverse order. Flask is thus the last one to start eating and has to be the first to finish, so he never gets as much food as he wants.
116	* TheNapoleon: Most likely less than five feet tall, and probably the second-angriest person on board besides Ahab himself.
117	* PintSizedPowerhouse: Being four-foot-something does not prevent Mr. Flask from being a force to be reckoned with. His nickname is "King-Post," after a type of short, thick wooden beam often used to reinforce ships and structures.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder: Queequeg]]
121	A Polynesian cannibal who serves as harpooneer on Starbuck's whaleboat. Ishmael is at first terrified of him, but after sharing a room at an inn together, the two remain best friends for the rest of the novel.
122	----
123	* AmbiguouslyGay: Ishmael recalls a moment where he woke up to find Queequeg cuddling him in a very affectionate manner, outright comparing it to a husband sleeping with his wife. Any actual attraction isn't really focused on, however.
124	* CannibalTribe ImAHumanitarian: Although Queequeg subverts many of the assumptions people make about him, he never denies having eaten people. Apparently it's not a big deal in his culture.
125	* CloserToEarth: At times. Though, considering he's on a ship with the likes of Ahab, it's not difficult to be.
126	* CompanionCube: Queequeg keeps a small wooden likeness of his god, Yojo, to which he prays sometimes.
127	* CreepyGood: Though one of the most likable and heroic characters in the story, a few of the other characters find him pretty unsettling.
128	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Has visions of his imminent doom, which drive him to have a coffin built. He eventually [[IgnoredEpiphany gets over his fear]] and starts using it for a storage chest; it's later pressed into service as a replacement lifebuoy, which [[ChekhovsGun comes in handy]] for Ishmael later on.
129	* GentleGiant: He's a brawny cannibal prince from the South Sea islands who's covered in tribal tattoos, has his teeth filed to look like fangs, and is deadly accurate with his harpoon (which doubles as a razor for shaving). So what's his favorite pastime besides peddling {{shrunken head}}s in the street? Snuggling up with his best buddy Ishmael. [[CutenessOverload D'awwwwwwww.]]
130	* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Ishmael. The "heterosexual" part is debatable, at least on Queeueg’s part.
131	* IgnoredEpiphany: He fails to heed his own predictions about his impending death.
132	* ImprobableAimingSkills: When Peleg doubts his skills, Queequeg points to a small drop of tar in the water and hits it with a thrown harpoon.
133	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: His tattoos were drawn by a seer who claimed they contained the answers to all of life's mysteries, but he never told anyone how to decipher them. We never find out if the seer was telling the truth or not.
134	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Believe it or not. He's closely modeled on a man named Te Pēhi Kupe, a Maori prince who talked the crew of an English ship into bringing him back to Britain, where he became a celebrity and even got to meet King George IV.
135	* NobleSavage: Like the other harpooneers, he is non-white, highly skilled, and generally awesome.
136	* WildSamoan: Subverted. Ishmael initially fears him as a dangerous savage, but he turns out to be a basically civilized and decent fellow (in his own way) with some peculiar cultural mannerisms.
137	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: He prefers steaks cooked rare when he can get them, and he'll always go for a good bowl of clam chowder.
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder: Tashtego]]
141	A Native American harpooneer who serves on Stubb's boat.
142	----
143	* DeadpanSnarker: Particularly during the scene where he tells the sky to stop all the rain and thunder and rain rum instead.
144	* NobleSavage: All four harpooneers are non-white, highly skilled, and generally awesome.
145	* SourSupporter: In stark contrast to his boss, [[CloudCuckoolander Mr. Stubb]], Tashtego is very cynical, deadpan, and resigned.
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder: Daggoo]]
149	A West African harpooneer who serves on Flask's boat.
150	----
151	* TheGiant: Six-foot-five is tall even by today's standards--but consider this: in America, the average height of an adult white male was five-foot-five, and Americans were actually ''taller'' than a lot of the world. So, assuming the story takes place between 1820 and 1848, Daggo would definitely qualify as a giant.
152	* NobleSavage: All four harpooneers are non-white, highly skilled, and generally awesome.
153	[[/folder]]
154
155	[[folder: Fedallah]]
156	A Parsi harpooneer who serves on Ahab's boat. Ahab keeps him and the rest of the boat's crew hidden aboard the ''Pequod'' at the start of the voyage; they only emerge once the ship first sights a whale. The one harpooneer who does not qualify for the NobleSavage trope, as Persian culture - though undoubtedly foreign to the book's intended audience - wasn't really seen as savage. He's also not exactly noble.
157	----
158	* AmbiguouslyEvil: He's very creepy and intimidating, spurs Ahab's mad quest on with [[NoManOfWomanBorn misleading prophecies]] in a way similar to the Witches in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', and Stubb insists he's a LouisCypher, but his actual intentions are never made clear.
159	* TheDragon: For Ahab.
160	* EthnicMagician ReligionIsMagic: His prophecies are linked pretty overtly to his Zoroastrian religious practices.
161	* LouisCypher: Stubb becomes convinced he might be the devil himself.
162	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's unclear if he's really psychic, or just very lucky and prone to vagueness.
163	* NoManOfWomanBorn: All of his prophecies are (technically) correct, but don't save anybody's lives like they're expected to.
164	* TheQuietOne: Doesn't seem to talk to anyone aside Ahab.
165	[[/folder]]
166
167	[[folder: Pip]]
168	A boy on board the ''Pequod''. Ends up cast adrift on the ocean for hours before being rescued. The experience [[GoMadFromTheIsolation leaves a mark on him.]]
169	----
170	* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: He is never quite right again after he is left adrift in the ocean by himself for hours before his rescue.
171	%%* FreakOut
172	* CrazySane: He [[GoMadFromTheRevelation goes mad]] after almost drowning twice and becomes a TalkativeLoon.
173	* GoMadFromTheIsolation: Spending hours adrift on the ocean with no company noticeably damaged his mental health.
174	* MoralityPet: To Ahab, who enjoys spending time with someone as mad as himself.
175	%%* TalkativeLoon: After his accident.%%ZCE
176	* ThatManIsDead: Going insane makes him think that Pip died at sea, and that he's someone else.
177	* TooDumbToLive: After he jumped out of the whale boat, Stubb warns him that he'll leave him adrift if he does it again. Not two minutes later does Pip jump in again.
178	[[/folder]]
179
180	%% [[folder: Dough Boy]]
181	%% [[/folder]]
182
183	%% [[folder: Fleece]]
184	%% [[/folder]]
185
186	[[folder: Perth]]
187	The ship's blacksmith.
188	----
189	* TheAlcoholic: He was a happy family man before becoming tainted by alcoholism, eventually driving his smithing business on land to ruin and his entire family to death.
190	* CrazySane: After a chapter tells us about [[TheBlacksmith Perth’s]] tragic life, Ahab himself asks why Perth averts this trope:
191	-->"Well, well; no more. Thy shrunk voice sounds too calmly, sanely woeful to me. In no Paradise myself, I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?"
192	* TragicBackstory: His whole family died many years before he came aboard the ''Pequod''.
193	[[/folder]]
194
195	[[folder: Carpenter]]
196	The ship's carpenter.
197	----
198	* TheEngineer: He made all of Ahab's peg legs, Queequeg's coffin, and later converted the coffin into [[ChekhovsGun a raft]].
199	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Only named as "Carpenter".
200	[[/folder]]
201
202	----
203
204	!!People of New Bedford and Nantucket
205
206	[[folder: Father Mapple]]
207	A preacher in New Bedford, [[TruthInTelevision and a former whale ship captain]].
208	----
209	* BadassPreacher: He used to be a whale ship captain, and had a ship pulpit installed in his church.
210	[[/folder]]
211
212	[[folder: Elijah]]
213	A man who accosts Ishmael and Queequeg in the streets of Nantucket, trying to dissuade them from joining the crew of the Pequod.
214	----
215	* CassandraTruth: Despite a few low blows, all of his warnings about Ahab and the ship eventually come to pass but initially go completely unheeded.
216	%%* MadOracle
217	* MeaningfulName: In the Bible, Elijah was a prophet who foretold visions of the future that were often heeded. Just like the one in the Bible, Elijah in this story foretells how upcoming events will unfold for the protagonists. Sadly, he's far less successful at convincing them.
218	[[/folder]]
219
220	[[folder: Peleg and Bildad]]
221	The owners of the ''Pequod''.
222	----
223	* BerserkButton: Do not mention merchant ships in front of Peleg.
224	* GoodCopBadCop: They seem to have this going on- Bildah proposing giving Ishmael a pitifully small share, and Peleg argues he should be given a larger but still rather miserly lay, still substantially less than what Ishmael was hoping for.
225	* MeaningfulName: Peleg was around "when the world was divided" according to Genesis. This Peleg is literally in charge of dividing the spoils of the Pequod.
226	* RedOniBlueOni: Peleg is the Red, Bildad is the blue.
227	[[/folder]]
228
229	----
230
231	!!Characters met at sea
232
233	[[folder: Moby Dick]]
234	The quarry of Ahab's hunt and the primary antagonist of the novel, Moby Dick is an almost mythical whale renowned for its incredible size, aggressiveness and white coloring.
235	----
236	* AlbinosAreFreaks: He is an albino, but he is not so much consciously evil as he is an AnimalNemesis. The narrator, Ishmael, extensively discusses the fact that purely white things — such as albinos or white whales — are deeply unsettling even though white is the color of good. In fact, it's suggested this psychological factor drove Ahab to hate the whale even before Moby-Dick took his leg.
237	* AmbiguouslyEvil: Is it just an animal acting on instinct, or is it a sentient, malevolent supernatural entity as Ahab and a number of other whalers claim?
238	* AnimalNemesis: One of the most famous one in the history of fiction.
239	* AnnoyingArrows: Covered in harpoons from previous failed attempts at his its life. [[SuperToughness Those harpoons haven't even fazed it]].
240	* TheBadGuyWins: It successfully kills his main opponent and all but one of his followers, escaping to live another day... if you consider it to be "bad" in the first place.
241	%%* DevilInDisguise: One of many theories.
242	%%* TheDreaded: Established as having this reputation.
243	%%* EldritchAbomination: A common interpretation of its stranger characteristics.%%Is?
244	* FamedInStory: He's a thing of myth and legend; every whaler has at least heard of him, and most know well enough to leave him alone.
245	* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The real whale he was based off of, Mocha Dick, was anything but aggressive. Reports say he was actually curious and docile, and was finally killed [[HeroicSacrifice attempting to protect another whale and her calf from a group of whalers]]. Since ''Moby Dick'' is written from [[ValuesDissonance the perspective of 1850s whalemen]], the titular whale is framed as a legendary, almost Satanic monster.
246	%%* TheJuggernaut: A nigh-unstoppable force of nature [[CurbStompBattle by claims]].%%Unclear wording, low on context.
247	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Whether he's just an unusually large, aggressive whale, or the physical manifestation of Nature/God/Fate/Satan is up for interpretation.
248	* MonsterWhale: He's undoubtedly one of the most iconic examples of this trope. He's an incredibly destructive and fearsome albino sperm whale who's so notorious for killing whalers and destroying their vessels that he's speculated in-universe to be some kind of malevolent supernatural entity.
249	* NonIndicativeName: In-universe, there's no explanation for its distinctive name. In a meta sense, Melville named it after the real whale Mocha Dick, who was himself named for Mocha Island.
250	* TheScapegoat: A metaphysical, perhaps even unconscious example; Ishmael believes that Ahab has put on Moby Dick all the ailments of a post-Adam world. Since he's unable to fight the God that made such a world, Moby Dick is the closest Ahab can come to personifying it.
251	* SeaMonster: He's a massive, aggressive creature, like a Leviathan of old.
252	* ShroudedInMyth: Its reputation for destroying whaling vessels is so great that many sailors insist it is not a whale at all, but the physical manifestation of an EldritchAbomination that exists everywhere in space and time at once but only sometimes takes corporeal form.
253	* StrongerWithAge: An interesting example that Melville may not have though about during his time, but modern research has shown that sperm whales do turn white with age the idea of which can imply that one of the reasons Moby Dick is so powerful is due to it being a very old member of the species.
254	* UncertainDoom: Moby Dick is last seen, heavily wounded, plunging to the depths (and taking Ahab with him). The narration does not clarify if Moby Dick survives the final confrontation or not and readership seems split on this, with many adaptations leaning to the idea of Ahab and Moby Dick executing a MutualKill of sorts on each other.
255	%%* WildCard: He is a sperm whale, a species that have been known to attack ships whether they have been provoked or not. It comes with the territory.%%What comes with the territory? Explain.
256	* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: More modern interpretations of Moby Dick portray him as this. With many species of whales under threat of extinction, it would be little wonder why Moby would have no qualms killing humans because of [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters what they're doing to Cetaceankind]] and [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse trying to justify their actions.]]
257	* YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm: The White Whale is deliberately portrayed in the narrative as enigmatic, its symbolism is not wasted on Captain Ahab. Ishmael describes the whale's forehead as having wrinkles and scars on it that look like ''hieroglyphics'', implying it's some kind of ancient forgotten deity. He muses on the difficulty of understanding what he saw. The mystical yet ineffable nature of the beast haunts him for the rest of his life.
258	[[/folder]]
259
260	[[folder: Captain Boomer]]
261	Captain of the ''Samuel Enderby'', who has recently had an encounter with Moby Dick.
262	----
263	* AnArmAndALeg: He loses his arm to Moby Dick, but isn't especially upset about it.
264	* {{Foil}}: To Ahab. Both are horribly wounded by Moby Dick, but while Ahab obsesses over having revenge for it, Boomer brushes it off. As he puts it himself, "Ain't one arm enough?"
265	[[/folder]]
266
267	[[folder: Captain Derick de Deer]]
268	Captain of the ''Jungfrau'' ("Virgin"), a German whaling ship that has had no success in its current voyage.
269	----
270	* ButtMonkey: An exceptionally inept whaler who has to beg Ahab for oil just to keep the lamps on his ship lit. He tries to outdo Ahab's crew at hunting some whales they've spotted, but is last seen pursuing a species of whale which Ahab says is too fast to be caught by even the best of crews.
271	[[/folder]]
272
273	[[folder: The ''Rosebud'']]
274	A French whaling ship ("Bouton-de-Rose" in that language).
275	----
276	* ButtMonkey: The captain is nearly as inept as de Deer, having caught two already-dead whales whose blubber and oil will be of very little value. Stubb tricks him into cutting them loose so he can recover valuable ambergris from one of the carcasses.
277	* HypercompetentSidekick: The first mate, in contrast to the captain, is better versed in whaling and aware that their efforts at gleaning what little oil is left in the whales they caught is meaningless, which is why he's so frustrated that his superior refuses to acknowledge this. Also unlike the captain, he speaks fluent English; this enables him to hatch a scheme with Stubb to circumvent the captain's authority and assert his own will.
278	* IronicName: The encounter with the ''Rosebud'' is accompanied by the overwhelming stench of the carcasses its crew are trying to process, which Stubb mockingly comments on.
279	* KnowNothingKnowItAll: The captain is actually not an experienced whaler, but a cologne manufacturer who got an urge to go hunting whales and is manning his first voyage. He completely ignores the advice of his more experienced first mate to just drop the dead whales they've got, until a little subterfuge with Stubb's aid convinces him otherwise.
280	[[/folder]]
281
282	[[folder: The ''Rachel'']]
283	* BigDamnHeroes: Though too late to do much genuine heroism, they, at least, save Ishmael's life.
284	* CensoredChildDeath: Some of the missing whalers they're searching for are children related to the crew, [[TruthInTelevision because back then children were often brought aboard whale-ships as apprentices]].
285	[[/folder]]

Context Characters / MobyDick