Chapter 135 - The Chase - Third Day Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

Comprehension Quiz: Chapter 135 - The Chase - Third Day

Why does Ahab order the ship to reverse course at the beginning of Chapter 135?

  • He spots the whale behind the ship
  • He realizes he has overshot the whale during the night
  • Starbuck convinces him to turn back toward Nantucket
  • The wind shifts and forces a change of direction

What does Ahab say about the act of thinking in his masthead soliloquy?

  • Thinking is the highest human achievement and moral duty
  • Thinking is audacity—only God has that right and privilege
  • Thinking is what separates sailors from common laborers
  • Thinking is a luxury reserved for those who stay ashore

What happens when Ahab and Starbuck part for the last time?

  • Starbuck refuses to shake Ahab's hand in protest
  • They shake hands and Starbuck weeps, begging Ahab not to go
  • Ahab orders Starbuck locked below decks for insubordination
  • Starbuck silently salutes and says nothing at all

What ominous creatures follow Ahab's boat as it leaves the Pequod?

  • Seagulls circle overhead screaming warnings to the crew
  • Sharks rise from beneath the hull and snap at the oars
  • Pilot fish swarm around the boat in unusual numbers
  • Giant squid surface and block the path to the whale

What is discovered on Moby Dick's body during the final encounter?

  • Dozens of old harpoons from previous whaling ships over the years
  • The half-torn body of Fedallah the Parsee, lashed in harpoon line
  • A massive scar from Ahab's previous encounter with the whale
  • Barnacles and coral that show the whale is centuries old

How does Fedallah's appearance on the whale fulfill his prophecy?

  • Fedallah predicted the whale would carry a human sacrifice
  • Fedallah said he would go before Ahab as his pilot in death
  • Fedallah foretold that his body would serve as whale bait
  • Fedallah prophesied the whale would become a living tombstone

What does Starbuck say in his final plea to Ahab?

  • "The crew will mutiny if you do not turn back now, Captain"
  • "Moby Dick seeks thee not. It is thou, thou, that madly seekest him!"
  • "We have lost too many men; honor demands we return home"
  • "The prophecy is clear—you will die if you pursue this course"

How does Moby Dick destroy the Pequod?

  • He breaches and lands on the ship, crushing the main deck
  • He rams the ship's starboard bow with his forehead, breaking the hull
  • He drags the ship under with harpoon lines wrapped around the keel
  • He creates a whirlpool that capsizes the vessel from beneath

What does Ahab mean when he cries "its wood could only be American"?

  • He is proud that the Pequod was built with American timber
  • He recognizes the sinking Pequod as the second hearse from Fedallah's prophecy
  • He curses America for building ships too weak to withstand whales
  • He laments that only American ships are foolish enough to hunt whales

How does Captain Ahab die?

  • Moby Dick swallows him whole as he stands in his whaleboat
  • The harpoon line catches around his neck and drags him into the sea
  • He goes down with the Pequod as the ship sinks beneath him
  • He is thrown from the boat and drowns in the whirlpool vortex

What happens to the sky-hawk at the very end of the chapter?

  • It flies away as the ship sinks, symbolizing the soul's escape from death
  • It gets caught between Tashtego's hammer and the mast, sinking with the ship
  • It attacks Ahab's boat and is killed by a thrown harpoon
  • It lands on the floating wreckage and survives the catastrophe

Which character says "I grin at thee, thou grinning whale" as the ship sinks?

  • Ahab, defiant to the bitter end aboard his whaleboat
  • Stubb, facing death with his characteristic dark humor
  • Flask, maintaining his pugnacious contempt for whales
  • Tashtego, shouting from the masthead as he hammers the flag

What is the very last line of Chapter 135?

  • "From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee"
  • "The great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago"
  • "The ship! The hearse!—the second hearse! its wood could only be American!"
  • "Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf"

What literary allusion is suggested by Ahab's words "from hell's heart I stab at thee"?

  • Homer's Iliad and Achilles' rage against the Trojans
  • Milton's Paradise Lost and Satan's rebellion against God
  • Shakespeare's King Lear and the storm scene on the heath
  • Dante's Inferno and the sinners trapped in the lowest circle

What does the image of the sea rolling on "as it rolled five thousand years ago" suggest?

  • The sea remembers and mourns every ship that has ever sunk
  • Nature is completely indifferent to human tragedy and ambition
  • Five thousand years is how long whales have been hunted by humans
  • The biblical flood is about to recur as divine punishment

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