Written in 1851 and considered a classic of modern literature, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick could be considered as one of the foundational texts of ocean ecohorror. In the novel, the main character Ishmael sets sail on the whaling ship the “Pequod” under the mad Captain Ahab, who lost a leg to an albino sperm whale, Moby Dick, and is eager to avenge the whale. Along the journey for vengeance, the crew kills several other whales, and despite warnings from other ships to abandon their quest for Moby Dick, Ahab continues on. When the crew finally faces Moby Dick, Ahab kills Moby Dick, but not before Moby Dick destroys the Pequod and Ahab dies by his own harpoon. The epilogue describes Ishmael as the only survivor.

The story of Moby Dick is in part based on a true event. In 1820, an 85-foot-long sperm whale attacked and sank the whaling ship the Essex, resulting in the surviving crew members suffering from “92 days and sleepless nights as sea in a leaking boat with no food, … going mad beneath the unforgiving sun, [and] eventual cannibalism” (King, par. 4). Additionally, the character of Moby Dick is based on a real whale, Mocha Dick, an albino sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean who reportedly destroyed more than 20 whaling ships and escaped capture by another 80 ships (Eschner, par. 2). Thus, Melville drew from the real events of his time period and played with the fears of the people to craft his tale of Moby Dick.

Part of the reason why Moby Dick is such an iconic novel today, especially in the ecohorror genre, is due to the fact that it explores themes such as fear of the unknown (manifesting as thalassophobia, or fear of the ocean), cosmic horror and the Sublime, and the supreme power of nature over humans. That being said, the inclusion of this text in our exhibit will also allow us to explore how the representation of ocean ecohorror has changed or developed over the past two centuries.

Cosmic horror and the Sublime

Cosmic horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that emphasizes the horror of the limitations of the human mind when faced with the incomprehensible. This theme is often reinforced by the notion of the Sublime, or an experience of awe, wonder, and astonishment that goes beyond the norm. According to Merrill Whitburn, “terror is in all cases whatsoever, either more openly or latently the ruling principle of the sublime” (Whitburn 34). Thus, cosmic horror and the Sublime go hand-in-hand. In Moby Dick, these two themes are used to amplify the fear of the unknown, particularly thalassophobia or the fear of the ocean, by portraying the ocean and the creatures which lie within as mysterious yet beautiful.

“It was a sight full of quick wonder and awe! The vast swells of the omnipotent sea; the surging, hollow roar they made, as they rolled along the eight gunwales, like gigantic bowls in a boundless bowling-green; the brief suspended agony of the boat, as it would tip for an instant on the knife-like edge of the sharper waves, that almost seemed threatening to cut it in two; the sudden profound dip into the watery glens and hollows; the keen spurrings and goadings to gain the tip of the opposite hill; the headlong, sled-like slide down its other side; … all this was thrilling” (Melville 279).

Ishmael’s description of a “serene ocean” is contrasted by the “gently awful stirrings [which] seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath” (Melville 580), which alludes to the fact that sailors can both figuratively and literally get lost in the depths of the ocean, making the ocean magnificent yet deadly. Ishmael also notes the sublimity in the endlessness and mystery of the ocean causes man to “[lose] his identity; [take] the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature; and every strange, half-seen, gliding, beautiful thing that eludes him; every dimly-discovered, uprising fin of some indiscernible form, seems to him the embodiment of those elusive thoughts that only people the soul by continually flitting through it…” (Melville 205). Ishmael recognizes the greater environment surrounding him and appreciates it, while also acknowledging that nature is somewhat dangerous (Lillquist 49).

Furthermore, the whale Moby Dick inspires terror in the crew such that the reader associates Moby Dick’s attacks with terror. At first, when whalers first encountered Moby Dick, they viewed him with awe, yet as Moby Dick’s attacks increasingly leave victims with sprained, broken, or amputated limbs, and even death, sailors begin piling their fears onto Moby Dick (Melville 228). As a consequence, the whaling industry becomes known for its “various and not unfrequent instances of great ferocity, cunning, and malice in the monster attacked” (Melville 228). Here, all sperm whales are referred to as “monsters” which seek to harm the sailors, allowing the sailors to feel justified in hunting and killing the whales.

“[In Moby Dick] there was enough in the earthly make and incontestable character of the monster to strike the imagination with unwonted power” (Melville 232).

In contrast, Ishmael is the only crew member who sees the godlike majesty of Moby Dick and other whales: “He saw the vast, involved wrinkles of the slightly projecting head beyond. Before it, far out on the soft Turkish-rugged waters, went the glistening white shadow from his broad, milky forehead, a musical rippling playfully accompanying the shade; and behind, the blue waters interchangeably flowed over into the moving valley of his steady wake; and on either hand bright bubbles arose and danced by his side” (Melville 656). His descriptions focus on the power, massiveness, mystery, and wildness of the whales, invoking the whale’s hugeness, power, and command over the ocean and alluding to the concept of sublimity (Lillquist 38). As a young and inexperienced whaler, Ishmael does not partake in the atrocities committed against the whales to the extent the other crew members do. This, combined with his ability to view the ocean and the creatures of nature with awe and respect, result in his survival at the end of the novel.

Fear of the unknown

Using the genre of cosmic horror to portray the ocean and the creatures within the seas, the novel reflects society’s fear of the unknown. The depths of the ocean have always been a mystery, and especially during the time period in which Melville wrote Moby Dick, humans knew much less about the ocean than people do today. In particular, the fact that creatures as large and as powerful as whales live in the ocean terrifies people, as they imagine the horrors these creatures can wreak on them. The use of a whale as the antagonist in the novel creates a realistic fear of the ocean and the creatures beneath the surface, especially since Melville based Moby Dick on true actions committed by real whales.

Supreme power of nature over humans

Moby Dick also illustrates man’s relationship to nature, and in particular highlights the supreme power of nature over humans. Throughout the novel, Melville emphasizes the wind, the ocean, and the creatures inside the ocean as embodiments of nature: “to and fro in the deeps, far down in the bottomless blue, rushed mighty leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks; and these were the strong, troubled, murderous thinkings of the masculine sea” (Melville 649). The creatures in the sea are especially illustrated in a negative light here, and nature is depicted to have thoughts and the implication of free will.

Captain Ahab himself views Moby Dick as an embodiment of nature: “All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick” (Melville 148). As a consequence, Moby Dick irritates Ahab because Ahab has no control over Moby Dick. Moby Dick is elusive and perhaps even exhibits a degree of autonomy, “for, when swimming before his exulting pursuers, with every apparent symptom of alarm, he had several times been known to turn round suddenly, and, bearing down upon them, either stave their boats to splinters, or drive them back in consternation to their ship” (Melville 232).

 Therefore, Ahab’s view of Moby Dick illustrates his view of the relationship between humans and nature: “a single line stretching from animals at the bottom to humans on top” (Lillquist 51). Ahab sees humans as superior to nature, and that the animals in the environment are meant to serve humans. Thus, Moby Dick symbolizes the unpredictability of the wilderness, especially when humans wrongly expect nature to conform to human desires.

On the other hand, Ishmael’s view of Moby Dick and the ocean as Sublime illustrate his more encompassing view of nature. Ishmael views nature as a series of networks, and he “comes to appreciate [these] networks and his insignificant place among them” (Lillquist 51). In fact, Dean Flower argues that Melville’s purpose in writing Moby Dick is “to restore a vision of both the grandeur and ultimate overmastering power of Nature” (Flower 139), or in other words, in the Sublime. Overall, Ishmael’s acceptance of his place as an equal part of nature suggests that his view of nature is preferred over Ahab’s viewpoint.