Melville's characters Queequeg, Tashtego, Daggoo, Pip, and Fedallah are all of nonwhite decent, being from either oriental, black, or a mixture of many different cultures. ... The other nonwhite characters in the book do not see the same discrimination that is shown to Queequeg on shore. ... Daggoo is another harpooner, although not as important a character as Queequeg or Tashtego. ... The character of Queequeg may portray Melville's uncertainties about his own religion. ... Its hard to say if Melville believed in signs and prophecies such as these, but many of the characters in Moby...

• Word Count: 2135
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Voltaire in this regard could be said, at least in Melville's views, to embody a nave view of the human condition, which is comparable to the nave innocence of Billy Budd. ... Melville p. 5) This indicates that Billy is intended to serve as a representative of an unfallen and uncorrupted man, such as Adam was before the fall. ... Billy, as Melville presents him, is indeed a person of admirable character, but his very nobility prevents him from adjusting satisfactorily to the demands of a civilization, which may well be corrupt, as Rousseau maintains it is, but which also embodies law, ...

• Word Count: 1389
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Throughout the story Melville relates the many troubling incidents experienced with the mysterious copier. ... Melville is calling on the reader's "little guy" to relate to the subconsciously driven behaviour of the characters. ... Melville lends humour to one conversation between the lawyer and Bartleby, in the form of contradiction. ... As the story winds down, Melville allows no more room for amusement at Bartleby's expense. ... The characters" eccentricities, when coupled with the narrator's take on them, have allowed Melville to present the tragedy in an amusing ma...

• Word Count: 925
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In Moby Dick, Melville uses innumerable biblical allusions, but readers can observe this literary technique best in the naming of his characters. ... As author, he creates the characters and names them. ... (Melville 1) We do not know if this is his real name but he chooses to identify with the biblical character. ... Ishmael names himself and consciously identifies with the biblical character. ... Melville takes advantage of this concept, and draws connections between biblical characters and his own. ...

• Word Count: 724
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Melville is set out to show Billy Budd as being a satanic character and Claggart as an angel of god, which is the exact opposite The significance of these two hyperboles is that Melville wants to create the image that Claggart is the hero and Billy Budd is the villain. ... Melville again tries to accuse Billy Budd of being an evil character. ... In Chapter 29, Melville states "...the character of this unfortunate man signally refutes, if refutation were needed, that peevish saying attributes to the late Dr. ... Yet again, Melville saying Billy is evil. ... The tendency of Melville prese...

• Word Count: 706
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Considering Melville's ability as a writer, it is fair to say that the difficulties presented by the character of Bartleby are there for a reason. Why did Melville create this inscrutable character? ... Bartleby functions in the story not as a character but as a symbol. ... Of all of Melville's characters, only the white whale, Moby Dick, presents the same interpretive difficulties as Bartleby and has been construed in as many different ways. In the novel Moby Dick, each of Melville's characters interprets the white whale differently, and its ultimate meaning seems both awesome ...

• Word Count: 2093
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

With this emotion and power of character, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, nakedly exposes raw humanity in all its glory and fault. ... Common Among many character descriptions of Ahab, is his depiction as "an ungodly, god-like man". ... "( Melville, p.433) The three characters, Ishmael, Queequeg, and Ahab view the Great white whale as a force to be reckoned with. The threat that the whale brings to each man is real and invokes a true test of character. ... Melville animates these intricate aspects of human nature through the elaborate journeys of these complex ch...

• Word Count: 1182
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Billy Budd parallels to the Bible in their characters, symbolism and resolution of the struggle between good and evil. The first parallel comes between two of the characters. ... This suggests that Billy possesses a personality or character that cannot be found any longer, and has not been seen for centuries. ... For instance, Richard Chase writes that Billy Budd is the realization of Melville's "fresh commitment to the infantile Christ," (Chase, Melville 267). ... "Melville tells us that the ordeal of the sentence and the hanging [was] worse for Vere than it [was] for Billy" (Chase, ...

• Word Count: 2119
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Herman Melville was born August, 1, 1819, in New York City. He was the third child of Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melville. ... From there, the Melville family moved from New York City to Albany, where Allan Melville died two years later. ... By this time, Melville had already started writing. ... Like the titular character in Pierre, Melville found satisfaction in his "double revolutionary descent." ...

• Word Count: 2748
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography

Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener - A Literary Analysis Bartleby the Scrivener is a story that takes place on Wall Street, peopled by workers of a common mold. ... The message that Melville intends for the reader is how society has little tolerance for social deviance. ... Bartleby is an example of a character that doesnÍt fit anywhere even near the mold and is "removed." ... Bartleby is an extreme example of a character trying achieve his individualism in society and failing, with the price of death. ... In a broader sense Melville is making the point th...

• Word Count: 568
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Many well-read people will agree that Herman Melville created the American tragic hero, Ahab. Melville provided the commander with the traits of those legendary tragic heroes: greatness, a flaw, and the recognition/downfall.As one reads Ahab"s inspirational words to his crew, the reader can"t help but to gain a respect for the arrogant, "crazy AhabaE. ... aE (Melville 455). ... Ahab hates the white whale with a deep passion, a passion that can be felt throughout Melville"s seemingly endless pages. ... An amazing, in-depth, stirring character, he proves to be America"s true tragic ...

• Word Count: 527
• Approx Pages: 2

There are three main characters in Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor: Billy Budd, John Claggart, and Captain Vere. ... Captain Vere is a more complex character, and much harder to be defined or stereotyped. ... It is noteworthy that in Melville's works pallor or whiteness generally symbolizes potential evil. ... According to Melville, Claggart's hatred for Billy Budd or inner evil derives from the alleged natural depravity. ... Its thematic richness largely comes from the complex relationship between the three main characters. ...

• Word Count: 718
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville. ... The character that signifies Rousseau" theory of the Noble Savage is Victor Frankenstein's creature. ... Another example of the origins of evil would be Herman Melville's Benito Cereno. ... The characters that closely represent Hobb's theory would be Babo and the slaves. ... Therefore the stories of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein discussed the origins of evil through Rousseau's and Hobb's theories....

• Word Count: 596
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

There are three main characters in Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Sailor: Billy Budd, John Claggart, and Captain Vere. ... Captain Vere is a more complex character, and much harder to be defined or stereotyped. ... It is noteworthy that in Melville's works pallor or whiteness generally symbolizes potential evil. ... According to Melville, Claggart's hatred for Billy Budd or inner evil derives from the alleged natural depravity. ... Its thematic richness largely comes from the complex relationship between the three main characters. ...

• Word Count: 716
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

In Herman Melville's novella, "Benito Cereno," an American ship captain has a surprising encounter with slavery when he boards a vessel largely occupied by blacks. ... "Benito Cereno" can be compared to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" because the main character from both stories struggles to decipher the realities of good and evil. ... The authors' perspectives on evil are reflected through the main characters of their stories. It appears that both authors, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, believe that evil is disguised; as in &q...

• Word Count: 1557
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In Moby Dick, Herman Melville frequently uses biblical and mythological allusions. ... Ishmael says he and Queequeg ARE boarding the Pequod because they have just "signed the articles" (Melville 68) and Elijah responds "Anything down there about your souls" (Melville 68). ... In Moby Dick the characters names are not so different than names in the Bible and neither is the outcome of those characters so different. ... Another mythological allusion Melville used in Moby Dick is mentioned of the Fares. ... Melville effectively shows the reader his intelligence. ...

• Word Count: 639
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

In the short novel "Billy Budd" written by Herman Melville, Captain Vere's choice of whether or not a single character such as Billy Budd possesses a higher importance than that of the general public is debated. ... (Melville 66) As an intellectual and accountable character, Captain Vere realizes the need to perform his duties regardless of the fact that his heart may possibly be telling him to do otherwise. ... (Melville 66) This situation is to be managed in a realistic and sensible manner despite the fact that there is a profound familiarity between the convict and the captain. ......

• Word Count: 381
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The novels both deal with the idea of fate and the role it plays in the lives of the characters. Obsession, to the point of monomania, is a driving force behind the actions of the main characters of both novels. ... In the novels Moby-Dick and Billy Budd the idea of fate governing the actions of the characters is present. Several main characters from both novels possess particularly fatalistic natures. ... I will wreak that hate upon him" ( Melville(1),157). ...

• Word Count: 3225
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

However, Hawthorne and Melville believe it to be much more than that. ... In each of their novels, Hawthorne and Melville show sin as a living, breathing being. Hawthorne's character Pearl truly exemplifies living sin. ... (Melville, 1851, p. 528) Throughout his story, Melville uses Moby Dick's aggressive and revengeful behavior to depict him as living sin. ... Melville does a masterful job of portraying Moby Dick as living sin, the destroyer of worlds. ...

• Word Count: 654
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

Most critics agree that these allusions serve as a basis to which a character or event is to be analyzed. ... He is the character who must deal with the struggle between good and evil, and must try to act in a non-partisan manner (Burris 1). ... Here Melville seems once again to align Billy with Christ. ... To them a chip of it was as a piece of the Cross- (Melville 77). ... - (Melville 71). ...

• Word Count: 3760
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Melville uses many different ways to explain the process of the elimination of humanity from the workplace. The most important of these are his use of the scenery, his description of the type of labor performed, and the personalities of his characters. ... Melville often describes the world by telling descriptions of the environment. ... The character of the world of work and business is most often suggested through physical description of the landscape. In the final prison scene Melville's description of environment extends the range of the story from the business world to the general ...

• Word Count: 594
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Herman Melville begins Benito Cereno by describing the setting with everything shrouded under the color of gray which prevents the characters in the story from seeing the truth. ... Melville wants us to question whether our position on slavery should be changed. ... The color gray is first illustrated as a symbol throughout the story when Melville depicts the setting, "Everything was mute and calm; everything grey" (Melville 1). ... He smote Babo's hand down, but his own heart smote him harder" (Melville 39). ... All these elements help Melville to reveal that everything ...

• Word Count: 1327
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography

But how can I hope to explain myself here;" (pg189, Melville). ... Throughout the novel, Melville himself is shown through the character of Ahab. Captain Ahab and Herman Melville mirror each other in this novel. ... (Pg. 188,Melville). ... This quote reveals the intense hatred that Melville bore for Christianity. ...

• Word Count: 818
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Melville explains to us that we need to strike some kind of balance between these two ideas; we need to have morality and virtue; we need to be in the world, but not of the world. To illustrate his theme, Melville uses a few characters who are all very different, the most important of which is Billy Budd. ... Here then, is presented a man with a personality and character to contrast and conflict with Billy's. ... The person he goes to is yet another type of character presented in this book. ... And that is where the fourth of these few characters comes in. ...

• Word Count: 1338
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School