Chapter 8 - The Pulpit Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

What was Father Mapple's occupation before he became a clergyman?

• A merchant ship captain
• A sailor and harpooneer
• A naval officer
• A shipbuilder and carpenter

How does Father Mapple reach the pulpit?

• He walks up a spiral staircase
• He climbs a perpendicular rope ladder
• He is lifted by a mechanical platform
• He ascends a set of carved wooden steps

What does Father Mapple do after climbing into the pulpit?

• He opens the Bible immediately to begin reading
• He pulls the rope ladder up after him
• He waves to the congregation below
• He lights the candles on the lectern

According to Ishmael, what does Father Mapple's withdrawal of the ladder symbolize?

• His fear of being disturbed during sermons
• His desire to impress the congregation
• His spiritual withdrawal from worldly ties
• His habit from his years as a sailor

What is depicted in the large painting behind the pulpit?

• A whale breaching from calm waters
• A ship battling a storm with an angel above
• Father Mapple preaching to sailors
• The biblical story of Jonah and the whale

What does the front of the pulpit resemble?

• A whale's jawbone
• A ship's bluff bows
• A lighthouse tower
• A carved anchor and chain

Who provided the red worsted man-ropes for the pulpit ladder?

• Father Mapple himself from his sailing days
• The wife of a whaling captain
• The chapel's architect
• A group of retired sailors

What metaphor does Ishmael use to describe the world at the end of Chapter 8?

• The world is a vast ocean without shores
• The world is a ship on its passage out
• The world is a chapel filled with mourners
• The world is a storm awaiting calm

Father Mapple arrived at the chapel carrying an umbrella to shield himself from the storm.

The chapel walls between the cenotaphs displayed a painting of a ship struggling against a storm.

In the chapter, Ishmael says Father Mapple was left "impregnable in his little Quebec." What does "impregnable" mean here?

• Uncomfortable and exposed
• Unable to be captured or broken into
• Deeply focused in prayer
• Physically exhausted from climbing

Melville describes "the marble cenotaphs on either hand of the pulpit." What are cenotaphs?

• Decorative marble columns
• Monuments honoring the dead whose remains are elsewhere
• Carved religious statues of saints
• Stone basins used for holy water

Ishmael describes Father Mapple's old age with "the spring verdure peeping forth even beneath February's snow." What does "verdure" mean?

• Gray coloring associated with aging
• A feeling of deep sadness
• Fresh green growth of vegetation
• The harsh cold of winter weather