Moby-Dick · Chapter
XC: Heads or Tails explained
Ishmael examines an arcane English law, still in force, which decrees that any whale caught on the coast belongs to the Crown: the King receives the head and the Queen the tail.
What happens
Ishmael examines an arcane English law, still in force, which decrees that any whale caught on the coast belongs to the Crown: the King receives the head and the Queen the tail. He illustrates the law's modern application with an anecdote about poor mariners from the Cinque Ports who, after capturing a whale, see it seized by the Lord Warden (the Duke of Wellington) who claims it as a 'Fast-Fish' for the sovereign. The mariners' pleas and a clergyman's appeal are coldly dismissed. The chapter then humorously dissects the purported legal and symbolic justifications for this royal division, questioning the logic behind assigning specific anatomical parts.
Themes in this chapter
Interpretation and Perception
The entire chapter is a satire on legal interpretation, showing how ancient, illogical laws are selectively applied and justified by authorities.
Race and Cultural Difference
Implicitly contrasts the arbitrary, codified property laws of English civilization with the more primal 'law of Fast and Loose-Fish' discussed earlier, highlighting cultural constructs of ownership.
Characters to notice
- Ishmael
Narrates the legal treatise and anecdote, providing sardonic commentary on English law and royal privilege.
Key passages
““Hands off! this fish, my masters, is a Fast-Fish. I seize it as the Lord Warden’s.””
A legal official claims the mariners' hard-won whale for the Duke of Wellington, invoking the law of 'Fast-Fish.'
Demonstrates the cold, bureaucratic enforcement of an archaic privilege.
““It is his.””
The official's only reply to every plea and question from the distressed mariners.
Repeated phrase emphasizing the inflexibility and injustice of the law.
““because of its superior excellence.””
Plowdon's reason why the whale belongs to the King and Queen.
A vague, pompous legal justification satirized by Ishmael.
““Ye tail is ye Queen’s, that ye Queen’s wardrobe may be supplied with ye whalebone.””
William Prynne's explanation for why the Queen gets the tail.
Ishmael points out the factual error (whalebone is in the head), mocking the absurdity of legal reasoning.