The Fatalism of Herman MelvilleUniversity of Wisconsin--Madison, 1939 |
Common terms and phrases
action Ahab American answer apparent attempt attitude Babbalanja became become believe Billy Budd brought Captain cause chance CHAPTER characters Clarel clear considered determinism discussion doubts effect entirely evidence evil existence fact fatalism fatalistic Fate feel felt final follow given gives hand Hawthorne heart Herman Melville hold human Ibid idea important interest kind later letter living Mardi matter meaning Media Melville's mind Moby Dick mother nature necessity never once opinion orders particular passage philosophical Pieces Pierre play poem position Potter powers predestinated problem of freedom published question received reference result seems sense ship sort soul speaks stand story strange suggested sure symbol tells things Thorp thought tion took turn University Weaver whale White Jacket whole writes written wrote York
Popular passages
Page 49 - All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event — in the living act, the undoubted deed — there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask.
Page 48 - The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them, till they are left living on with half a heart and half a lung.
Page 49 - Swerve me? ye cannot swerve me, else ye swerve yourselves! man has ye there. Swerve me? The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run. Over unsounded gorges, through the rifled hearts of mountains, under torrents
Page 57 - This warp seemed necessity; and here, thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads.
Page 23 - But all events are mixed in a fusion indistinguishable. What we call Fate is even, heartless, and impartial; not a fiend to kindle bigot flames, nor a philanthropist to espouse the cause of Greece. We may fret, fume, and fight ; but the thing called Fate everlastingly sustains an armed neutrality.
Page 57 - Queequeg's impulsive, indifferent sword, sometimes hitting the woof slantingly, or crookedly, or strongly, or weakly, as the case might be ; and by this difference in the concluding blow producing a corresponding contrast in the final aspect of the completed fabric...
Page 21 - As a man-of-war that sails through the sea, so this earth that sails through the air. We mortals are all on board a fast-sailing, never-sinking world-frigate, of which God was the shipwright ; and she is but one craft in a Milky- Way fleet, of which God is the Lord High Admiral.
Page 7 - Until I was twenty-five, I had no development at all. From my twenty-fifth year I date my life. Three weeks have scarcely passed, at any time between then and now, that I have not unfolded within myself.
Page 84 - Under the circumstances, those books induced a salutary feeling. Gradually I slid into the persuasion that these troubles of mine, touching the scrivener, had been all predestinated from eternity, and Bartleby was billeted upon me for some mysterious purpose of an allwise Providence, which it was not for a mere mortal like me to fathom. Yes, Bartleby, stay there behind your screen, thought I; I shall persecute you no more; you are harmless and noiseless as any of...
Page 57 - ... woof slantingly, or crookedly, or strongly, or weakly, as the case might be; and by this difference in the concluding blow producing a corresponding contrast in the final aspect of the completed fabric; this savage's sword, thought I, which thus finally shapes and fashions both warp and woof; this easy, indifferent sword must be chance — ay, chance, free will, and necessity — no wise incompatible — all interweavingly working together.