Chapter 57 - Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 57 - Of Whales in Paint; in Teeth; in Wood; in Sheet-Iron; in Stone; in Mountains; in Stars
Who is the crippled beggar on Tower-hill?
A one-legged man near the London docks who holds a painted board depicting the whale attack in which he lost his leg. He has displayed it for ten years.
What does the beggar's painted board depict?
Three whales and three boats, with one boat being crunched by the jaws of the foremost whale—the scene in which the beggar lost his leg.
What is "skrimshander" (scrimshaw)?
The art of carving whales, whaling scenes, and other designs on sperm whale teeth, right whale bone, and other marine materials, practiced by whalemen during their hours of ocean leisure.
Where does Ishmael say you can find scrimshaw?
Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, New Bedford, and Sag Harbor.
What tools do most whalemen use for scrimshaw?
Their jack-knives alone, which Ishmael calls "that almost omnipotent tool of the sailor." Some have small boxes of specialized implements.
What does Melville mean by saying whalers are "savages"?
That long exile from civilization restores a man to a natural state. Ishmael declares himself "a savage, owning no allegiance but to the King of the Cannibals," connecting isolation to artistic creativity.
To whom does Melville compare the whaleman's carvings?
To Hawaiian war-clubs (patience of carving with a broken sea-shell), the Greek Achilles's shield (intricate design), and the prints of "that fine Dutch savage, Albert Durer" (Albrecht Durer).
What are "wooden whales" in the chapter?
Whales cut in profile from small dark slabs of South Sea war-wood, frequently found in the forecastles of American whalers. Some are carved with great accuracy.
What whale-shaped objects appear on old houses?
Brass whales hung by the tail as door knockers on old gable-roofed country houses.
What are the sheet-iron whales?
Whale-shaped weathercocks placed on the spires of old-fashioned churches—too elevated to examine closely, effectively labeled "Hands off!"
How does Ishmael see whales in stone?
In bony, ribby regions of the earth, masses of rock at the base of broken cliffs resemble "petrified forms of the Leviathan partly merged in grass."
How does Ishmael see whales in mountains?
In mountainous countries, from lucky vantage points, the profiles of whales appear along undulating ridges. Finding the same view again requires exact latitude and longitude.
What does Ishmael compare mountain whale sightings to?
The lost Soloma (Solomon) Islands, which remain incognita despite Mendanna and Figuera once visiting and chronicling them.
How does Ishmael see whales in the stars?
He traces Leviathan around the North Pole in the constellations, and beneath Antarctic skies he boards Argo-Navis to chase the starry Cetus beyond Hydrus and the Flying Fish.
What constellations does Ishmael reference?
Argo-Navis (the ship), Cetus (the whale), Hydrus (the water snake), and the Flying Fish (Volans)—all real southern-sky constellations.
What is the chapter's final image?
Ishmael imagines mounting a whale with "a frigate's anchors for my bridle-bitts and fasces of harpoons for spurs" to leap the topmost skies and discover whether the fabled heavens lie beyond mortal sight.
What is the structural progression of the chapter?
It moves from human-made representations (paint, teeth/bone, wood, brass, sheet-iron) to natural formations (stone, mountains) to cosmic patterns (stars), scaling from the personal to the universal.
What wordplay does Melville make about the beggar's stump?
Though "for ever mounted on that stump, never a stump-speech does the poor whaleman make"—punning on "stump" as both his amputated leg and a political speech platform.
What Hawaiian craft does Melville describe?
An ancient Hawaiian war-club or spear-paddle, carved with miraculous intricacy of wooden net-work using only a broken sea-shell or shark's tooth, representing years of steady application.
What theme unifies all the representations in this chapter?
That the whale pervades every level of human experience and imagination—from folk art to fine craft to nature to the cosmos—suggesting its universal symbolic significance.