Moby Dick Lesson Plan

How does Melville characterize the conflict between Ahab and Moby Dick without actually having the whale enter until the novel's final chapters?

Without actually introducing the great whale until the final chapters of the novel, Melville dramatizes the conflict between Moby Dick and Ahab through the internal agony that plagues Ahab throughout the course of the novel. In a not insignificant respect, the conflict is between Ahab and the idea of Moby Dick as well as the actuality of the whale.

Even apart from the whale's physical presence Ahab is so tormented by the whale that he falls into a state of catatonia. In this chapter, Melville indicates that Ahab's leg serves...