Symbolism In Moby Dick

Through the symbol of the wind as a microcosm for the natural world and Ahab’s interaction with the wind, Herman Melville argues that human will will never been able to subvert the natural world long term, and short term attempts will be at the cost of the individual. Throughout Moby Dick, Melville characterizes Ahab as ambitious and charismatic, a leader who constantly internally and externally compares himself to a god. The wind acts as a symbol, an object that represents a greater intangible motif, for the natural world. Through Ahab’s monologue about his interactions with the wind, his own helplessness within the natural world becomes evident. Ahab begins by stating “Were [he] the wind, [he]’d blow no more on such a wicked, miserable world” (Melville, 337),
Through harpoons, ships, money, and people he controls his environment and exerts control over nature. This power deludes him into security and authority, causing him to personify natural objects such as the sun so he could “strike the sun if it insulted [him]” and (335). Intangible obstacles such as the sun and the wind infuriate him because he has no control over them, which is the crux of nature’s rule over human will. The internal and external conflict caused by Ahab thinking he could subvert his natural environment and force it to conform to his command is a product of a Romantic perception of nature. Romantics believed that the natural world was divine and therefore above the wishes of man. Ahab in Moby Dick served to stand against the sanctity of the natural world in order to exemplify the ways in which nature always reasserts itself over mankind’s attempt to control it, in this case Ahab’s attempt to harness the wind to use for transportation and whaling