Chapter 42 - The Whiteness of The Whale Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 42 - The Whiteness of The Whale
What quality of Moby Dick does Ishmael say "above all things appalled" him?
The whiteness of the whale.
According to Ishmael, what does whiteness "strike more of" to the soul than?
More panic than "that redness which affrights in blood."
Name two animals Ishmael cites as examples of whiteness intensifying terror.
The polar bear ("white bear of the poles") and the white shark ("white shark of the tropics").
What French name for the white shark does Ishmael mention, and what does it allude to?
Requin, which alludes to the Requiem mass for the dead, reflecting the shark's "white, silent stillness of death."
What bird does Ishmael describe seeing during an Antarctic gale?
An albatross, which he describes as "a regal, feathery thing of unspotted whiteness" with "vast archangel wings."
What did the sailor call the albatross when Ishmael asked?
A "goney," which is a seaman's name for albatross.
Had Ishmael read Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner when he saw the albatross?
No. He had neither read the poem nor known the bird was an albatross, proving the whiteness itself caused his awe.
Who is the White Steed of the Prairies?
A legendary magnificent milk-white wild horse, called the "elected Xerxes of vast herds," who inspired both reverence and nameless terror among Native Americans.
What does Ishmael say about the Albino man?
The Albino is "as well made as other men" with "no substantive deformity," yet his all-pervading whiteness "makes him more strangely hideous than the ugliest abortion."
What historical group does Ishmael reference as an example of whiteness used for human malice?
The White Hoods of Ghent, who murdered their bailiff in the marketplace while masked in white.
Why does the city of Lima horrify Ishmael?
Because "Lima has taken the white veil" — its whiteness keeps its earthquake ruins "for ever new" and spreads a "rigid pallor of an apoplexy" over them.
What does Ishmael say whiteness "shadows forth"?
"The heartless voids and immensities of the universe," stabbing us "from behind with the thought of annihilation."
According to Ishmael, what is whiteness in terms of color theory?
"Not so much a color as the visible absence of color; and at the same time the concrete of all colors."
What does Ishmael mean by "a colorless, all-color of atheism from which we shrink"?
That a universe stripped of its colorful illusions reveals a blank white void with no inherent meaning, and this emptiness terrifies us.
What analogy does Ishmael use about a Vermont colt to explain instinctive terror?
A young colt raised far from predators will still panic when it smells a wild buffalo robe, demonstrating "the instinct of the knowledge of the demonism in the world."
What does Nature "absolutely" do, according to Ishmael's theory of color?
Nature "absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within."
What sailor experience does Ishmael describe as more terrifying than the roar of breakers?
Sailing through a midnight sea of milky whiteness, which creates "a silent, superstitious dread" worse than fear of hidden rocks.
What is the final sentence of Chapter 42?
"Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?" — connecting the terror of whiteness to the motivation for pursuing the white whale.
From what Latin word does Ishmael say Christian priests derive the name "alb"?
From the Latin word for white, referring to the white tunic worn beneath the cassock.
In what biblical vision does Ishmael reference white robes and a white throne?
The Vision of St. John (Revelation), where white robes are given to the redeemed and the Holy One sits on a great white throne.
What does Ishmael conclude about the relationship between the visible and invisible worlds?
"Though in many of its aspects this visible world seems formed in love, the invisible spheres were formed in fright."