Chapter 1 - Loomings Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 1 - Loomings
What is the famous opening line of Moby-Dick?
Call me Ishmael.
What does Ishmael say is his substitute for pistol and ball?
Going to sea. He sails whenever he feels depressed or violent rather than resorting to self-destruction.
In what role does Ishmael choose to go to sea?
As a simple sailor, right before the mast. He refuses to go as a passenger, captain, commodore, or cook.
What type of voyage is Ishmael about to embark on?
A whaling voyage, which he says was arranged by the Fates as part of the grand programme of Providence.
What does Ishmael say appeared on the programme of Providence alongside his whaling voyage?
A Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States and a Bloody Battle in Afghanistan.
What vision closes Chapter 1 of Moby-Dick?
Endless processions of whales floating into Ishmael's soul, with one grand hooded phantom like a snow hill in the air among them.
What city does Ishmael describe people crowding the waterfront of?
Manhattan (the Manhattoes), where crowds gather at the Battery and wharves to gaze at the sea.
What was Ishmael's profession before going to sea?
He was a country schoolmaster who made the tallest boys stand in awe of him.
What does Ishmael's name allude to biblically?
The biblical Ishmael is the outcast son of Abraham, banished to wander. The name signals the narrator is a wanderer and outsider.
How does Ishmael describe his own temperament and desires?
He says he is tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote and loves to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts.
What does Ishmael say about his financial situation?
He has little or no money in his purse, which is one reason he ships as a paid sailor rather than a paying passenger.
What does Ishmael call the image humans see reflected in water?
The image of the ungraspable phantom of life, which he says is the key to understanding humanity's attraction to the sea.
What is the universal thump that Ishmael describes?
The idea that everyone is a kind of slave who gets ordered around; all hands should rub each other's shoulder-blades and be content.
How does Ishmael view fate versus free will in Chapter 1?
He believes an invisible police officer of the Fates secretly dogs him and influences his decisions, and that his whaling voyage was part of Providence's grand programme.
What argument does Ishmael make about water and meditation?
He argues that meditation and water are wedded forever, and that all people are instinctively drawn to water in their deepest reveries.
What classical figure does Ishmael reference when discussing people drowning in their reflections?
Narcissus, who plunged into a fountain and drowned because he could not grasp the tormenting, mild image he saw there.
What rhetorical device does Melville use in the passage beginning with repeated instances of whenever?
Anaphora — the repetition of whenever at the start of successive clauses to build rhythmic intensity and catalog Ishmael's despair.
What metaphor does Ishmael use for Providence's plan for his life?
A theatrical programme or bill, with his whaling voyage listed as a brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances.
What does hypos mean as Ishmael uses it in Chapter 1?
A colloquial term for hypochondria or a state of depression and anxiety. Ishmael says his hypos get the upper hand of him.
What does circumambulate mean in the context of Chapter 1?
To walk all the way around something. Ishmael invites the reader to circumambulate the city of Manhattan on a Sabbath afternoon.
What does spleen mean as Ishmael uses it?
A mood of irritability, melancholy, or ill temper. Going to sea is his way of driving off the spleen.
Complete the quote: It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life...
...and this is the key to it all. Ishmael says this after the Narcissus allusion, arguing that water reflects humanity's deepest yearnings.
Complete the quote: I love to sail forbidden seas...
...and land on barbarous coasts. Ishmael uses this line to explain his attraction to the dangers and mysteries of whaling.