Chapter 132 - The Symphony Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 132 - The Symphony
How does Melville describe the air at the opening of Chapter 132?
As feminine -- "transparently pure and soft, with a woman's look" -- populated by gentle white birds that are "the gentle thoughts of the feminine air."
How does Melville describe the sea at the opening of Chapter 132?
As masculine, heaving with "long, strong, lingering swells, as Samson's chest in his sleep," filled with leviathans, sword-fish, and sharks.
What role does the sun play in the chapter's opening imagery?
The sun presides "like a royal czar and king," giving the gentle air to the bold sea "as bride to groom," orchestrating a cosmic wedding.
What does Ahab look like when he appears on deck in this chapter?
"Tied up and twisted; gnarled and knotted with wrinkles; haggardly firm and unyielding; his eyes glowing like coals, that still glow in the ashes of ruin."
What does Ahab do as he leans over the side and watches his shadow in the water?
He drops a single tear into the sea. Melville writes: "nor did all the Pacific contain such wealth as that one wee drop."
What brief effect does the beautiful day have on Ahab's soul?
The "lovely aromas in that enchanted air" momentarily dispel "the cankerous thing in his soul," and the "step-mother world" throws affectionate arms around his stubborn neck.
How does Starbuck approach Ahab in this chapter?
"Careful not to touch him, or be noticed by him, he yet drew near to him, and stood there," sensing the measureless sobbing that stole out of the serenity around.
How long has Ahab been whaling, according to his confession to Starbuck?
Forty years, since he was a "boy-harpooneer of eighteen," during which he has spent barely three years ashore.
What does Ahab reveal about his marriage?
He married his wife "past fifty, and sailed for Cape Horn the next day, leaving but one dent in my marriage pillow." He says he "widowed that poor girl when I married her."
What does Ahab call the isolation of his rank?
"The masoned, walled-town of a Captain's exclusiveness" and the "Guinea-coast slavery of solitary command."
What does Ahab tell Starbuck about looking into his eyes?
"Let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon God. By the green land; by the bright hearthstone! this is the magic glass, man; I see my wife and my child in thine eye."
What order does Ahab give Starbuck regarding the final chase?
"Stay on board, on board! -- lower not when I do; when branded Ahab gives chase to Moby Dick. That hazard shall not be thine."
How does Starbuck respond to Ahab's vulnerability?
He passionately urges Ahab to abandon the hunt and sail home to Nantucket, invoking his own wife and child and beginning to give orders to alter the course.
What simile does Melville use to describe Ahab when he rejects Starbuck's plea?
"Like a blighted fruit tree he shook, and cast his last, cindered apple to the soil."
What does Ahab mean when he asks "Is Ahab, Ahab?"
He questions whether he is truly the agent of his own actions, or whether some external power -- fate, God, or an "invisible power" -- controls his thoughts and movements.
What analogy does Ahab use to argue for determinism?
"If the great sun move not of himself; but is an errand-boy in heaven; nor one single star can revolve, but by some invisible power; how then can this one small heart beat... unless God does that beating."
What does Ahab compare himself and the crew to, regarding fate?
"We are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass, and Fate is the handspike."
What does the hay-making imagery at the end of Ahab's speech suggest?
Ahab smells air "as if it blew from a far-away meadow" where mowers "are sleeping among the new-mown hay," then shifts to "we all sleep at last on the field" -- equating sleep with death and the mowers with scythes left rusting.
What happens to Starbuck at the end of the chapter?
"Blanched to a corpse's hue with despair, the Mate had stolen away" -- unable to bear Ahab's return to his fatalistic obsession.
Who does Ahab find when he crosses the deck after Starbuck leaves?
Fedallah, who was "motionlessly leaning over the same rail," his "two reflected, fixed eyes" staring up from the water.