Chapter 106 - Ahab's Leg Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 106 - Ahab's Leg
What ship had Ahab just left when his ivory leg was damaged?
The Samuel Enderby of London.
What happened to Ahab's leg when he landed on the thwart of his boat?
It received a "half-splintering shock."
What additional damage did the leg sustain on the Pequod's deck?
An "additional twist and wrench" when Ahab wheeled around to command the steersman.
What was Ahab complaining about to the steersman?
That the steersman was not steering inflexibly enough.
What injury did Ahab suffer before the Pequod sailed from Nantucket?
His ivory leg was violently displaced and nearly pierced his groin, leaving him unconscious.
What is the term used to describe Ahab's period of seclusion?
"Grand-Lama-like exclusiveness."
Who had previously given an inadequate reason for Ahab's seclusion?
Captain Peleg.
What comparison does Ahab use for the perpetuation of grief?
A poisonous reptile of the marsh that inevitably perpetuates its kind, just like the sweetest songster of the grove.
According to Ahab, which lasts longer—grief or joy?
Grief. He says "the ancestry and posterity of Grief go further than the ancestry and posterity of Joy."
What quality does Ahab attribute to earthly happiness?
"A certain unsignifying pettiness."
What quality does Ahab attribute to deep suffering?
"A mystic significance, and, in some men, an archangelic grandeur."
What does Ahab conclude about the gods?
That "the gods themselves are not for ever glad."
What does Ahab call the "sad birth-mark in the brow of man"?
The stamp of sorrow in the signers (the gods).
Who does Ahab call to make a new leg?
The ship's carpenter.
What material is the new leg to be made from?
The stoutest, clearest-grained sperm whale jaw-ivory accumulated on the voyage.
Who is commanded to forge the iron fittings for the new leg?
The blacksmith.
By when must the new leg be completed?
That night.
What phrase does the narrator use to describe Ahab's practical response to his damaged leg?
"He took plain practical procedures."
Why had those close to Ahab concealed his pre-voyage injury?
Out of "zeal for him" and because the mysterious injury "invested itself with terrors" connected to the supernatural.
What does the word "primogenitures" refer to in Ahab's meditation on suffering?
The original sources or first-born origins—Ahab traces mortal miseries back to the "sourceless primogenitures of the gods."