Chapter 9 - The Sermon Practice Quiz — Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
by Herman Melville — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 9 - The Sermon
What does Father Mapple do before beginning his sermon?
He orders the scattered congregation to condense using nautical commands, kneels in prayer, and leads them in a hymn about Jonah and the whale.
What biblical story is the subject of Father Mapple's sermon?
The story of Jonah from the Old Testament, focusing on Jonah's disobedience of God, his flight by ship, and his being swallowed by a whale.
Why does Jonah flee to Tarshish in Father Mapple's sermon?
Jonah flees because God has given him a hard command to preach to the wicked city of Nineveh, and he seeks to escape his duty by sailing as far from Joppa as possible.
How does the ship's Captain react to Jonah in the sermon?
The Captain suspects Jonah is a fugitive but accepts him as a passenger after Jonah pays triple the usual fare, since sin that pays its way can travel freely.
What happens to Jonah during the storm at sea?
Jonah sleeps through the storm in his berth. The sailors cast lots and discover Jonah is the cause. He tells them to throw him overboard, and when they do, the sea calms and the whale swallows him.
What is the "two-stranded lesson" Father Mapple draws from Jonah's story?
The first lesson teaches all sinners to repent properly, being grateful for punishment rather than clamoring for pardon. The second teaches spiritual leaders to preach truth in the face of falsehood.
How does Father Mapple end his sermon?
He concludes with a series of "Delight is to him" declarations about the joy of serving God faithfully, then slowly waves a benediction, covers his face, and remains kneeling alone.
What is the "two-stranded lesson" about for pilots of the living God?
For spiritual leaders, the lesson warns against shirking the duty to preach unwelcome truths. Like Jonah, who initially fled from preaching to Nineveh, they must speak truth even when it provokes hostility.
What was Father Mapple's profession before becoming a preacher?
He was a harpooner and sailor before becoming a preacher, which explains his use of nautical language and seafaring metaphors throughout his sermon.
How does Father Mapple describe himself in relation to his congregation?
He calls himself "a greater sinner than ye" and says that while God has laid one hand on his congregation, both of God's hands press upon him as a pilot of the living God.
How does Father Mapple characterize Jonah as he flees from God?
Mapple portrays Jonah as guilty, skulking, and self-condemning—prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar, with a slouched hat and guilty eye, unable to hide his fugitive nature.
What kind of leader does the ship's Captain represent in Mapple's telling?
The Captain represents worldly corruption—a man whose discernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless, willing to help a flight that paves its rear with gold.
How does the congregation react to Father Mapple's preaching?
The simple hearers look on him with a quick fear that was strange to them, as his physical intensity—heaving chest, tossed arms, thunderous brow—makes him seem tossed by the storm he describes.
What does Father Mapple say about the relationship between obeying God and obeying oneself?
He states that "if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists."
How does the sermon explore the theme of sin and wealth?
Mapple observes that "sin that pays its way can travel freely and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers," critiquing how money enables moral corruption.
What does Father Mapple teach about true repentance?
True repentance is not clamorous for pardon but grateful for punishment. Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance but accepts his punishment as just and leaves deliverance to God.
How does the sermon connect to Captain Ahab's later actions in the novel?
The sermon warns against defying God's moral law. Ahab embodies the opposite of Jonah's repentance—he never submits to a higher authority and pursues his own obsessive vendetta, leading to his destruction.
What does the swinging lamp in Jonah's cabin symbolize?
The lamp, hanging perfectly straight while the ship tilts around it, symbolizes divine truth and moral conscience that remains constant while the sinner's soul is crooked and distorted.
What rhetorical device does Mapple use in the "Woe to him" and "Delight is to him" passages?
Anaphora—the repetition of a phrase at the beginning of successive clauses. This creates an incantatory, prophetic effect that builds emotional intensity.
How does Melville use dramatic irony in this chapter?
The congregation of whalemen listens to a sermon about a man swallowed by a whale, unaware that many of them will face a deadly encounter with Moby Dick, creating tragic dramatic irony.
What extended metaphor structures the entire sermon?
The blending of nautical and religious language—congregation as shipmates, Bible as cable, preacher as pilot, pulpit as ship's prow—creates an extended metaphor linking spiritual life to seafaring.
What does "canticle" mean as used in the sermon?
A canticle is a hymn or chant, typically one with a biblical text. Mapple calls Jonah's prayer from inside the whale "that canticle in the fish's belly."
What does "cupidity" mean in the context of the Captain's behavior?
Cupidity means greed or avarice. The Captain's cupidity leads him to overlook Jonah's obvious guilt because Jonah pays generously for his passage.
What does "obliquity" refer to in the description of the swinging lamp?
Obliquity means a slanting or tilted position. The lamp maintains a permanent obliquity relative to the tilting room, though the lamp itself hangs perfectly straight.
Who says: "if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists"?
Father Mapple says this during his sermon, establishing the chapter's central moral argument about the difficulty of submitting to divine authority over personal will.
Who says: "Oh! so my conscience hangs in me! straight upwards, so it burns; but the chambers of my soul are all in crookedness!"?
Jonah says this in Father Mapple's retelling, comparing his guilty conscience to the straight-hanging lamp surrounded by the tilting walls of his cabin.
Who says: "Delight,- top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven"?
Father Mapple says this in his sermon's climactic conclusion, declaring that the highest joy belongs to those who serve God above all earthly powers and authorities.