Hubris and Its Impact on Captain Ahab of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31973/aj.v0i129.588Keywords:
Hubris, Tenacity, Determination, Do-or-die attitudeAbstract
Hubristic characters, in Greek mythology and in later eras, have been looked at negatively. Once a hubristic character emerges, that would provoke nemesis. Consequently, society would punish him/her since she/he allegedly challenges the gods, ignoring warnings and laws of society, and that would present him/her as someone rude and challenging the norms. Accordingly, such a hubristic character would eventually face moral, spiritual, and physical downfall. However, it seems that presenting a hubristic character in Greek mythology and in later eras in such a negative way is a mere fallacy. In fact, effective pride springs from certainty and over-confidence. Consequently, in demonizing effectively proud characters, they unconsciously impede and restrict human abilities and passions from unleashing against the negatively effective forces of external nature and internal human one, which need great toil to endure.
This paper attempts to, first, explore and study the actions and psyche of the proud Captain Ahab of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Its second objective is to study the importance of pride and its great effects on the psyche and behavior of the above mentioned hero and on astonishingly shaping the whole course of evolution of incidents. Third, it aims at showing the noble human passions and abilities propelled by his effective pride where he employs them against the forces of nature. Fourth, it also aims at showing his individuality against the forces of nature and how his effective pride mediates in his inner impulses as an organizer, pushing them forward rather than backward. Accordingly, his pride emerges as an effective force challenging the forces of nature. Captain Ahab appears proud of his abilities and passions. In other words, he well recognizes that he is determined, courageous, daring, fearless, and tenacious. Finally, it concludes that effectively pushing pride foregrounds the captain as extremely effective, influential, and inspiring. He prides himself on the positive attributes which he has, and this eventually makes him infinitely and imperiously assertive, insistent, and equivalent to the forces of external nature where he becomes, in spite of his death, not only a hero but also an inspiring one.
Downloads
References
Bacon, Francis. The Works of Lord Bacon, Moral and Historical. London: Warwick House, 1878.
Beiner, Ronald. Political Philosophy: What It is and Why It Matters. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. New York: Dover,1993.
Conrad, Joseph. “Tales of the Sea.” Modern English Essays. Vol. 4 Ed. Ernest Rhys London: Dent, 1922.
Cotkin, George. Dive Deeper: Journeys with Moby-Dick. Oxford University Press: New York, 2012.
Cotkin, George. Existential America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
Engel, Wilson F. Notes on Moby-Dick. Essex: Longman, 1981.
Faulkner, William. Essays, Speeches and Public Letters. Ed. James B. Meriwether. London: Chatto and Windus, 1967.
Fluck, Winfried. Cultures of Criticism: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Expressive Individualism, and the New Historicism. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1995.
Garner, Eric. The Art of Leadership. New York: Ventus Publishing Aps, 2012.
Hamad, A. “The Quest Pattern and Motif in American Sea-Novel.” Journal of Al Baath University 2 (1999). PP. 5-42.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. Beirut: York Press, 2002.
High, Peter, B. An Outline of American Literature. New York: Longman, 2003.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism- review-the new-big-brother-11547509779. It was retrieved on 13/3/2019.
Isaacson, Walter. “The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs.” Harvard Business Review 120 (2012).
Khuon,Tony. “Personality Development for a Changing World: When Hubris Is a Good Thing.” Agile Life Style. Online Posting. March 6, 2014 <http://agilelifestyle.net/hubris-examples/>. It was retrieved on 13/2/2018.
Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. 2003.
Nietzsche, Fredric. The Will to Power. Trans. by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House Inc., 1968.
Ramachandra, R. Melville, and Conrad: A Comparative Study. Mysore: Vasudha, 1983.
Rose, Frank. "‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’ Review: The New Big Brother". The Wall Street Journal, 14 Jan. 2019.
Sadler-Smith, Eugene. Hubristic Leadership. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019.
Skinner, C. A. Miller Overthrown, Or the False Prophet Confounded. Boston, Abel Tompkins, 1840.
Spark, Clare, L. Hunting Captain Ahab Psychological Warfare and the Melville Revival. Kent, Ohio: The Kent University Press, 2006.
Spude, Catherine Holder. “The Friend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend. Norman: The University of Oklahama Press, 2012.
Tagore, Rabindranath. Reaping the Fruits: A Vision into Tagore’s World. Beirut: Naufal, 2000.
Winchester, Simon. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of Oxford English Dictionary. Toronto: HapperCollins Canada, 1999.
Ziff, Larzer. Introduction. Moby-Dick. By Herman Melville. London: Campbell, 1991.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright and Licensing:
For all articles published in Al-Adab journal, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work.
Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers: It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyrightholder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyrightholder).
Permission is required for: Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
Substantial extracts from anyones' works or a series of works.
Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.
Permission is not required for: Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.
Obtaining Permission
In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Al-Adab Journal cannot publish material from other publications without permission.
The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.
How to Cite
