Moby-Dick · Chapter
LXXV: The Right Whale’s Head—Contrasted View explained
Ishmael provides a detailed anatomical and philosophical comparison between the heads of a captured Right Whale and a Sperm Whale.
What happens
Ishmael provides a detailed anatomical and philosophical comparison between the heads of a captured Right Whale and a Sperm Whale. He describes the Right Whale's head through a series of vivid analogies (a shoe, a bass-viol, an oak tree) and examines its internal structures, like the baleen 'blinds' and the massive lower lip. The chapter culminates in a contrast of the perceived expressions on the two severed heads, attributing a stoic, practical resolution to the Right Whale and a speculative, placid indifference to the Sperm Whale.
Themes in this chapter
Interpretation and Perception
The entire chapter is an exercise in perception, as Ishmael interprets the whale's head through shifting analogies (shoe, bass-viol, oak, king's crown, organ) and ultimately reads philosophical dispositions (Stoic vs. Platonian) into their physical expressions.
Man vs. Nature
The detailed dissection and commodification of the whale's body (oil, bone, tongue) exemplifies the human drive to conquer, catalog, and utilize nature.
The Limits of Knowledge
Ishmael uses speculative analogy and admitted uncertainty (e.g., calculating age from baleen marks) to approach an understanding of the whale, highlighting the creature's ultimate mystery.
Characters to notice
- Ishmael
Narrator and observer; provides the detailed anatomical description and philosophical musings on the two whale heads.
- Stubb
Implied presence as the mate who captured the Right Whale, referenced in the context of the whale kill.
- Flask
Implied presence as the mate who assisted in capturing the Right Whale, referenced in the context of the whale kill.
Key passages
“Can you catch the expression of the Sperm Whale’s there? ... I think his broad brow to be full of a prairie-like placidity, born of a speculative indifference as to death. But mark the other head’s expression. ... Does not this whole head seem to speak of an enormous practical resolution in facing death?”
Ishmael interprets the Sperm Whale's head as showing a calm, philosophical acceptance of death, while the Right Whale's head displays a stubborn, resolute defiance.
Highlights the chapter's core philosophical contrast, personifying the whales.
“And as those ancient dames moved about gaily, though in the jaws of the whale, as you may say; even so, in a shower, with the like thoughtlessness, do we nowadays fly under the same jaws for protection; the umbrella being a tent spread over the same bone.”
Just as women of the past wore fashion items made from whalebone, we now use umbrellas with ribs made from the same material, unknowingly seeking shelter under the 'jaws' of the whale.
Draws a clever, ironic connection between historical human use of whales and modern life.
“In the central blinds of bone... there are certain curious marks, curves, hollows, and ridges, whereby some whalemen calculate the creature’s age, as the age of an oak by its circular rings. Though the certainty of this criterion is far from demonstrable, yet it has the savor of analogical probability.”
Whalemen try to determine a Right Whale's age from patterns in its baleen, similar to counting tree rings. While not proven, the method seems plausibly analogous.
Illustrates the whalemen's attempts to systematize knowledge from nature, albeit with uncertain science.