Chapter 119 - The Candles Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 119 - The Candles
What type of storm strikes the Pequod in Chapter 119?
A Typhoon in the Japanese seas, which strips the ship of all her canvas and leaves her bare-poled.
What happens to Ahab's quarter boat during the storm?
A great rolling sea stoves in its bottom at the stern—the exact spot where Ahab habitually stands.
What does Starbuck see as ominous about the wind direction?
The gale blows from the east, the very course Ahab has set to pursue Moby Dick.
How does Stubb react to the danger of the Typhoon?
He sings sea songs and declares himself "not a brave man" but a coward who sings to keep up his spirits.
What are corpusants?
St. Elmo's fire—pale, luminous flames of electrical plasma that appear at the tips of the masts and yardarms during the storm.
How does Melville describe the three masts burning with corpusants?
"Like three gigantic wax tapers before an altar"—this image gives the chapter its title, "The Candles."
How does Daggoo appear during the corpusant display?
He looms up to "thrice his real stature" against the ghostly light, seeming like "the black cloud from which the thunder had come."
How do Queequeg's tattoos appear in the corpusant light?
They burn "like Satanic blue flames on his body," lit by the preternatural light.
Where is the Parsee positioned during the corpusant scene?
Kneeling at the base of the mainmast, beneath the doubloon and the flame, with his head bowed away from Ahab.
What does Ahab do with the lightning-rod links?
He seizes them and holds them in his left hand, placing his foot upon the Parsee, to feel the fire's "pulse" and let his blood beat against it.
To whom does Ahab address his soliloquy?
The "clear spirit of clear fire"—the cosmic force manifested in the corpusants and lightning.
What does Ahab declare is the "right worship" of the clear spirit?
Defiance. He says, "I now know that thy right worship is defiance."
What is Ahab's past connection to fire worship?
He once worshipped fire "as Persian" (in the Zoroastrian tradition) and bears a scar from a "sacramental act" that burned him.
Who does Ahab call the fire, in familial terms?
His "fiery father." He also grieves for an unknown "sweet mother," asking the fire, "what hast thou done with her?"
What is burning on Ahab's harpoon during the storm?
A levelled flame of pale, forked fire on the keen steel barb—the harpoon forged at Perth's fire, whose leather sheath has fallen off.
What does Starbuck say when he sees the burning harpoon?
"God, God is against thee, old man; forbear! 't is an ill voyage! ill begun, ill continued; let me square the yards... and make a fair wind of it homewards."
How does Ahab quell the near-mutiny?
He snatches the burning harpoon and waves it like a torch among the crew, threatening to transfix anyone who casts loose a rope.
How does Ahab extinguish the harpoon flame?
With "one blast of his breath," declaring he blows out "the last fear."
What does Stubb optimistically claim the burning masts signify?
That the masts will become "three spermaceti candles"—meaning the hold will be full of sperm oil that will "work up into the masts, like sap in a tree."
What biblical allusion does Ishmael make about the corpusants?
He compares God's fire to the "Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin" of Daniel—the divine writing on the wall foretelling judgment.
What Shakespearean dramatic technique does Melville use in this chapter?
Stage directions in brackets (e.g., "[Sudden, repeated flashes of lightning...]"), soliloquies, and theatrical confrontation scenes.
To what does Melville compare Ahab at the chapter's end?
A "lone, gigantic elm" whose height and strength make it "so much the more a mark for thunderbolts," causing men to flee.
What does Ahab claim about his own origin in relation to the fire?
"Of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee."—He claims the fire created him.