# CXVII: The Whale Watch explained — Moby-Dick

> Chapter companion for Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

## What happens

Ahab's boat crew spends the night beside a slain whale far to windward, waiting to retrieve it in the morning. In the dark, Ahab and Fedallah converse about Fedallah's prophecies concerning Ahab's death, with Ahab expressing a derisive belief in his own immortality and his inevitable triumph over Moby Dick.

## Themes in this chapter

### Fate, Free Will, and Predestination

The central dialogue revolves around Fedallah's prophecies, which seem to dictate the conditions of Ahab's death, pitting Ahab's defiant will against an apparently foretold fate.

### Madness and Sanity

Ahab's laughter and declaration of immortality in the face of ominous prophecy highlight his monomaniacal state, blurring the line between defiant resolve and delusion.

## Character check-ins

### Captain Ahab

Awakens from a dream about hearses, engages Fedallah on the prophecies of his death, and defiantly declares he will slay Moby Dick and is 'immortal on land and on sea.'

### Fedallah

Crouches watchfully in the bow, reiterates his cryptic prophecies about the hearses and Ahab's death, and states that only hemp (the gallows) can kill Ahab.

## Key lines

> I have dreamed it again... Of the hearses?

Ahab tells Fedallah he has again dreamed of hearses, referencing the earlier prophecy.

_Shows the prophecy preys on Ahab's mind even in sleep._

> Believe it or not, thou canst not die till it be seen, old man.

Fedallah insists Ahab cannot die until the prophesied sights are witnessed.

_Emphasizes the conditional, predestined nature of Ahab's fate._

> Hemp only can kill thee.

Fedallah states that only a hangman's rope can kill Ahab.

_Adds a specific, cryptic detail to the prophecy of Ahab's death._

> I am immortal then, on land and on sea... Immortal on land and on sea!

Ahab laughs derisively, interpreting the prophecy to mean he cannot be killed by normal means at sea.

_Highlights Ahab's hubris and his twisted, defiant interpretation of fate._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/cxvii-the-whale-watch
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters