Chapter 7 - The Chapel Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 7 - The Chapel
Where does Ishmael go on Sunday morning in Chapter 7?
He visits the Whaleman's Chapel in New Bedford before his whaling voyage.
What is the weather like when Ishmael goes to the chapel?
The weather has changed from clear, sunny cold to driving sleet and mist, and he must fight through a stubborn storm.
Who does Ishmael find inside the chapel?
He finds a small, scattered congregation of sailors, sailors' wives, and widows sitting in muffled silence.
What are the worshippers in the chapel staring at?
They are staring at marble memorial tablets with black borders mounted on the walls on either side of the pulpit.
How did Captain Ezekiel Hardy die, according to his memorial tablet?
He was killed by a sperm whale in the bows of his boat on the coast of Japan on August 3, 1833.
How did the six crewmen of the ship Eliza die?
They were towed out of sight by a whale on the off-shore ground in the Pacific on December 31, 1839.
Why is Ishmael surprised to see Queequeg in the chapel?
He did not expect to find Queequeg there, and Queequeg was the only person who noticed Ishmael's entrance.
Why is Queequeg the only person who notices Ishmael enter the chapel?
Because Queequeg is the only one who cannot read, so he is not absorbed in reading the memorial inscriptions on the walls.
What is Queequeg's reaction to the chapel scene?
He shows a wondering gaze of incredulous curiosity, affected by the solemnity of the scene.
Who erected the memorial tablet for John Talbot?
His sister erected the tablet in memory of John Talbot, who was lost overboard near Patagonia at age eighteen.
Who erected Captain Ezekiel Hardy's memorial tablet?
His widow erected the tablet in his memory.
How does Ishmael describe himself by the end of the chapter?
He grows merry and defiant, concluding that his body is merely the lees of his better being and his soul is indestructible.
What does Ishmael mean when he says the worshippers are like "silent islands"?
Each person's grief is isolated and private, unable to be shared or communicated, much like islands separated by water.
What makes death at sea especially agonizing for the bereaved, according to Ishmael?
The bodies are never recovered, so there is no grave to visit, leaving "bitter blanks" and "deadly voids" that undermine closure and faith.
How does Ishmael resolve his fear of death by the end of the chapter?
He embraces a Transcendentalist view that his physical body is just a shadow of his true spiritual substance, and his soul cannot be destroyed.
What is the relationship between faith and doubt in this chapter?
Faith and doubt are intertwined. The chapel is a place of worship, yet the tablets inspire despair. Melville writes that faith feeds among the tombs like a jackal, drawing strength from death itself.
What literary device is at work in "Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs"?
This is a simile comparing faith to a scavenger animal, suggesting faith paradoxically draws its vital hope from encounters with death and doubt.
How do the memorial tablets function as a literary device in Chapter 7?
They serve as foreshadowing, warning of the deadly dangers of whaling that the Pequod's crew will face on their voyage.
What rhetorical device does Melville use in the long passage beginning "In what census of living creatures"?
He uses anaphora, a cascading series of rhetorical questions about death that build existential tension before the resolving final statement.
What simile does Ishmael use to describe humans contemplating the spiritual realm?
He compares humans to oysters observing the sun through water, thinking the thick water is the thinnest of air.
What does "insular" mean in the context of Chapter 7?
Insular means isolated or detached, like an island. Ishmael uses it to describe how each person's grief is separate and incommunicable.
What does "cenotaph" mean in relation to the chapel tablets?
A cenotaph is a monument erected in honor of someone whose body is buried elsewhere or not recovered. The chapel tablets are cenotaphs since the whalemen's bodies were lost at sea.
What does "lees" mean when Ishmael says his body is "the lees of my better being"?
Lees are the sediment or dregs left at the bottom of a container of wine. Ishmael means his body is the least important residue of his true spiritual self.
Who says "stave my soul, Jove himself cannot" and what does it mean?
Ishmael says this at the chapter's end. It means that even the king of the gods cannot destroy his soul, expressing defiant confidence in spiritual immortality.
What does Ishmael mean by "what they call my shadow here on earth is my true substance"?
He is reversing the typical understanding of body and soul: what people consider his real self (his body) is actually the shadow, while his soul is the true substance.
What is the meaning of "a stove boat will make me an immortal by brevet"?
Ishmael darkly jokes that being killed in a smashed (stove) whaleboat would grant him a kind of honorary immortality through death, similar to a military brevet promotion.