Chapter 127 - The Deck Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 127 - The Deck
What is the Carpenter doing when Ahab finds him on deck?
Caulking the seams of Queequeg's coffin, which is being converted into a life-buoy on Starbuck's orders.
Who ordered the coffin to be turned into a life-buoy?
Mr. Starbuck.
What three things has the Carpenter made for the Pequod's crew?
Ahab's ivory leg, Queequeg's coffin, and now the coffin-turned-life-buoy.
Why does Ahab compare the Carpenter to the gods?
Because the Carpenter creates instruments of both life and death without moral distinction, just as the gods are "unprincipled" in their dealings with humanity.
What does the Carpenter say when Ahab accuses him of being unprincipled?
"But I do not mean anything, sir. I do as I do."
What Shakespeare play does Ahab allude to in this chapter?
Hamlet. He references "the grave-digger in the play" who sings while digging graves, paralleling the Carpenter working on the coffin.
According to the Carpenter, why does the caulking mallet make music?
Because the coffin lid is a sounding-board, and "what in all things makes the sounding-board is this—there's naught beneath."
What paradox does Ahab identify in the coffin life-buoy?
That "the very dreaded symbol of grim death" has been "made the expressive sign of the help and hope of most endangered life."
What does Ahab wonder the coffin might be in a spiritual sense?
An "immortality-preserver."
Why does Ahab reject the hopeful reading of the coffin as an immortality-preserver?
He says he is too "far gone in the dark side of earth" for the bright side to seem like anything more than "uncertain twilight."
What does Ahab exclaim about materials and thoughts?
"How immaterial are all materials! What things real are there, but imponderable thoughts?"
Who is Pip and what is his relationship with Ahab in this chapter?
Pip is the young boy who lost his sanity at sea. Ahab has grown deeply attached to him and says he sucks "most wondrous philosophies" from Pip.
What literary form does Melville use for Chapter 127?
Dramatic form, with stage directions, direct dialogue, and soliloquy, resembling a scene from a play.
What does the Carpenter privately think about Ahab after their conversation?
That "some sort of Equator cuts yon old man right in his middle"—he is always fiery hot and unpredictable, like the equatorial line dividing hot latitudes.
What does Ahab call the Carpenter's tapping on the coffin?
"The greyheaded wood-pecker tapping the hollow tree" and compares the sound to man's seconds ticking away.