Chapter 69 - The Funeral Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

by Herman Melville

Comprehension Quiz: Chapter 69 - The Funeral

What has happened to the whale before Chapter 69 begins?

  • It has been harpooned but is still alive, thrashing alongside the Pequod in its death throes
  • It has been beheaded and stripped of its blubber, leaving only the peeled white carcass
  • It has been killed and the head has been kept, but the blubber has not yet been processed
  • It has escaped the crew and is being pursued across the open ocean by the Pequod

To what does Ishmael compare the peeled white body of the whale?

  • A massive iceberg drifting slowly through the arctic waters toward warmer currents
  • A marble sepulchre, gleaming white despite having lost its outer layer of blubber
  • A bleached ship hull overturned on the waves, abandoned by its fleeing crew
  • A great white cloud descended from the sky and settling upon the ocean surface

Which two types of creatures descend upon the whale's floating carcass?

  • Dolphins circling in curiosity and jellyfish drifting into the whale's open wounds
  • Sharks tearing at the body in the water and screaming sea fowl stabbing from above
  • Pilot fish cleaning the remains and albatrosses circling silently at a respectful distance
  • Sperm whales investigating the corpse and pelicans scooping at loose pieces of flesh

What does "poniards" mean in the phrase "beaks are like so many insulting poniards"?

  • Heavy hammers or mallets used for driving nails into the hulls of wooden ships
  • Light daggers or stabbing weapons, comparing the birds' beaks to piercing blades
  • Fishing hooks with barbed ends, suggesting the birds snag and tear at the flesh
  • Ceremonial swords carried by officers, implying the birds attack with formal precision

Why does Ishmael call the scene "a most doleful and most mocking funeral"?

  • The crew holds a somber ceremony but secretly celebrates the profit the whale will bring
  • The scavengers appear dressed in funeral black but are actually feasting on the corpse
  • The whale's body sinks immediately, denying it even the dignity of floating on the surface
  • Ahab delivers a mocking eulogy over the whale before ordering the carcass destroyed

What does Ishmael mean by exclaiming "Oh, horrible vulturism of earth!"?

  • That vultures are the most terrifying predators in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems
  • That opportunistic, predatory behavior toward the dead is universal and inescapable in nature
  • That the whale industry has made the earth itself into a place of horror and suffering
  • That the specific vultures circling the Pequod are a bad omen for the voyage ahead

What is the "vengeful ghost" that survives the whale's death?

  • The spirit of the whale that haunts Ahab in his dreams, driving his obsession further
  • The whale's floating white carcass, which distant ships mistake for dangerous shoals or rocks
  • The memory of the whale preserved in scrimshaw carvings made from its bones by the crew
  • A supernatural presence felt by the Pequod's crew that causes unexplained storms at sea

What do frightened sailors write in their ship's logs after seeing the whale's carcass?

  • "Great white whale sighted in these waters: all ships beware of dangerous leviathan"
  • "Shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabout: beware!" — a false navigational warning
  • "Ghost ship spotted on the horizon: cursed waters, change course immediately"
  • "Uncharted island discovered at these coordinates: further exploration recommended"

What animal does Ishmael compare ships to when they avoid the phantom hazard?

  • Startled horses that bolt from shadows, galloping wildly away from imagined threats
  • Silly sheep leaping over a vacuum because their leader once leaped when a stick was held
  • Frightened deer freezing in place rather than investigating the source of an unfamiliar sound
  • Nervous cattle stampeding in a herd, each one following the panicked animal ahead of it

Which of the following does Ishmael NOT explicitly critique through the whale's ghost metaphor?

  • The law of precedents — following previous decisions without questioning their validity
  • The utility of traditions — inherited customs that no longer serve a rational purpose
  • The economics of whaling — the profit motive that drives men to hunt whales to extinction
  • The obstinate survival of old beliefs — superstitions persisting without factual foundation

What does Ishmael mean when he says the whale's ghost represents beliefs "never bottomed on the earth, and now not even hovering in the air"?

  • The whale's body has fully decomposed, leaving nothing physical behind at all
  • These beliefs never had a factual foundation and have now lost even their superficial plausibility
  • The ghost has risen so high above the water that it can no longer be seen by passing ships
  • The traditions were originally about land animals but have been transferred to sea creatures

What is the Cock-Lane ghost that Ishmael references at the chapter's end?

  • A legendary phantom rooster said to crow at midnight on ships doomed to sink at sea
  • A famous fraudulent London haunting from 1762 that even Doctor Johnson investigated
  • A folk tale about a ghostly whale that appeared to New England whalers before storms
  • A fictional ghost from a popular novel that Melville's contemporary readers would recognize

How does the whale's power transform from life to death, according to Ishmael?

  • In life the whale was gentle and peaceful, but in death it becomes a source of violent conflict among ships
  • In life the whale was a real terror to its foes, but in death its ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world
  • In life the whale was hunted for profit, but in death it becomes sacred and untouchable to all sailors
  • In life the whale was invisible beneath the waves, but in death it becomes a visible monument on the surface

Comprehension Quiz

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