Ishmael (Moby-Dick)
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Ishmael is the narrator (and arguably the protagonist) of the 1851 novel Moby-Dick by U.S. author Herman Melville. It is through his eyes and experience that the reader experiences that the story of the ship Pequod, and the fight between Captain Ahab and the white whale. He is a central character in the action in the early part of the novel, essentially fulfilling all the requirements of being a conventional protagonist, but after the Pequod leaves Nantucket, he increasingly recedes into the background as a commentator, with his voice approaching that of an omniscent narrator at times, able to see into all parts of the ships and into the private motivations of other characters.
Description
Ishmael introduces himself in the opening sentence of the novel with the well-known line "Call me Ishmael." The name Ishmael is Biblical in origin: In Genesis, Ishmael was the son of Abraham by the servant Hagar. In the Bible, and in Jewish and Christian tradition, Ishmael was an illegitimate son who was cast off after the birth of Isaac, who inherits the covenant of the Lord instead of his older half-brother (In the Islamic tradition, with which Melville was certainly much less familiar, Ishmael is a legitimate son of Abraham). Much literatary criticism has been written concerning the significance Melville's use of the name, in particular the notion of Ishmael as an outsider who wanders the earth. In Moby-Dick Ishmael does not comment on the significance of his own name, but he does refer to himself by that name several times later in the book.
Ishmael provides little about his personal background before his decision at the beginning of the novel to journey to New Bedford, Massachusetts to enlist a sailor on a whaler. At the beginning of the novel, he is an experienced seaman who has not previously served about a whaler but in the merchant marine service (an experience that ridiculed by the owners of the Pequod when he approaches them to sign on). He begins the novel in the first chapter wanderng through Manhattan in the dreariness of November with dark thoughts suggesting nearly suicidal tendencies: pausing before coffin houses and following funerals. His primary reason for going to sea, he suggests, is to break out of this depressive cycle and obsession with death.
Ishmael as Melville
It is often suggested by critics that Ishmael may be a direct incarnation of Melville himself, since Melville in fact served about a whaling ship. According to this interpretation, Ishmael is Melville's pseudonym for purposes of the novel. Most criticism typically dismisses the simplicity of this, however, suggesting a more complex intepretation in which Ishmael, along with Ahab, functions as a partially embodiment of Melville's own character and observation.
Actors who have played Ishmael
- Richard Basehart, in the 1956 film adaption in which Gregory Peck plays Ahab.
- Henry Thomas, in the 1998 television adaption in which Patrick Stewart plays Ahab.
- Tim Guinee (voice) in the 2000 animated movie in which Rod Steiger plays the voice of Ahab.
Note that Ishmael does not appear at all in the 1930 film adaption, loosely based on Meville's novel, in which John Barrymore plays Ahab.