Moby Dick Characters

The narrator, and a junior member of the crew of the Pequod.

Ishmael

-this character doesn't play a major role in the events of the novel

Ishmael

The narrator, and a junior member of the crew of the Pequod.

Ishmael

-this character doesn't play a major role in the events of the novel

Ishmael

The obsessive captain of the Pequod.

Ahab

-lost his leg to Moby Dick

Ahab

-he is dictatorial but not unfair.

Captain Ahab

The great white sperm whale.

Moby Dick

-also referred to as the White Whale

Moby Dick

• an infamous and dangerous threat to seamen

Moby Dick

-considered by Ahab the incarnation of evil and a fated nemesis.

Moby Dick

The first mate of the Pequod.

Starbuck

-questions Ahab's judgment

Starbuck

-religious man who believes that Christianity offers a way to interpret the world around him

Starbuck

The second mate of the Pequod.

Stubb

-easygoing and popular

Stubb

-very humorous

Stubb

-a nihilist who always trusts in faith

Stubb

-refusing to assign too much significance to anything.

Stubb

Starbuck's skilled harpooner and Ishmael's best friend.

• was once a prince from a South Sea island who stowed away on a whaling ship in search of adventure.

Queequeg

• a composite of elements of African, Polynesian, Islamic, Christian, and Native American cultures

Queequeg

-He is brave and generous, and enables Ishmael to see that race has no bearing on a man's character.

Queequeg

A native of Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard and the third mate of the Pequod

Flask

-a confrontational attitude and no reverence for anything

Flask

-His stature has earned him the nickname "King- Post," because he resembles a certain type of short, square timber.

Flask

A young black boy who fills the role of a cabin boy or jester on the Pequod.

Pip

-has a minimal role in the beginning of the narrative but becomes important when he goes insane after being left to drift alone in the sea for some time

Pip

-Like the fools in Shakespeare's plays, he is half idiot and half prophet, often perceiving things that others don't.

Pip

Flask's harpooner.

Daggoo

• a physically enormous, imperious- looking African.

Daggoo

• he stowed away on a whaling ship that stopped near his home.

Daggo

Stubb's harpooner

Tashtego

• a Gay Head Indian from Martha's Vineyard, one of the last of a tribe about to disappear.

Tashtego

-performs many of the skilled tasks aboard the ship, such as tapping the case of spermaceti in the whale's head.

Tashtego

• "noble savage" and is meant to defy racial stereotypes.

Tashtego

-more practical and less intellectual than Queequeg

Tashtego

-craves rum

Tashtego

A strange, "oriental" old Parsee (Persian fire-worshipper)

Fedallah

-has a turban made from his own hair

Fedallah

-wears a black Chinese jacket and pants

Fedallah

-serves as a prophet to Ahab

Fedallah

A well-to-do retired whaleman of Nantucket and a Quaker.

Peleg

• takes care of hiring the crew

Peleg

-the "generous one"

Peleg

Another well-to-do Quaker ex-whaleman from Nantucket who owns a large share of the Pequod

Bildad

A former whaleman and now the preacher in the New Bedford Whaleman's Chapel

Father Mapple

• delivers a sermon on Jonah and the whale in which he uses the Bible to address the whalemen's lives

Father Mapple

-Learned but also experienced, he is an example of someone whose trials have led him toward God rather than bitterness or revenge

Father Mapple

The jovial captain of the English whaling ship the Samuel Enderby.

Captain Boomer

-has lost his arm in an accident involving Moby Dick.

Captain Boomer

-a foil for Ahab, as the two men react in different ways to a similar experience

Captain Boomer

A sailor aboard the Jeroboam

Gabriel

-Part of a Shaker sect

Gabriel

• has prophesied that Moby Dick is the incarnation of the Shaker god and that any attempts to harm him will result in disaster

Gabriel

-His prophecies seem to have been borne out by the death of the Jeroboam's mate in a whale hunt and the plague that rages aboard the ship

Gabriel

a strange man who prophesies doom for the Pequod, biblical illusion - prophet who told King Ahab that there would be no rain, calls out the prophets of Baal, hears God as a small, still voice - 1 Kings 19:18

Elijah

the cook aboard the Pequod preaches a sermon to the sharks

Fleece

the blacksmith who makes Ahab's harpoon

Perth

a seaman aboard the Town-Ho who was persecuted by Radney

Steelkit

biblical allusion - one of Job's three friends, co-owner's of the Pequod

Peleg and Bildad

this man is the pale, nervous steward of the ship, black

the dough boy

(nameless) Ahab calls on him to fashion a new whalebone leg after the one he wears is damaged

The carpenter

Briblical character, subject of Father Mapple's sermon, god told him to take his message to Ninevah but he didn't to and tried to escape from god by boarding a ship to a different land, was swallowed by a whale before he was spit after agreeing to go to Ninevah

Jonah

landlord of the Spouter-Inn

Peter Coffin

A sailor that Ishmael first meets in the Spouting-Inn, and later sees on the deck of the Pequod. His character is unknown, but he holds himself apart from the other men when Ishmael first sees him

Bulkington

Bildad's sister, helps get the ship ready to sail, tries to prohibit the men from drinking on the ship, gives them a teapot and ginger tea to give the harpooneers instead of liquor, teapot is thrown overboard

Aunt Charity

The mate of the Town-Ho, a cowardly fellow who is killed by Moby-Dick, flogs Steelkilt

Radney

the ship on which most of the book takes place, Ahab's ship, sunk by Moby-Dick

Pequod

The wife of the landlord of the inn Ishmael and Queequeg stay in Nantucket; she runs the place while her husband is away.

Mrs. Hussey

The small idol to which Queequeg worships. Queequeg prays to it each night before retiring to bed, and consults it before any decision. It tells him that Ishmael has to pick the ship the two men are to sail on.

Yojo

The city from which the Pequod starts its journey, and the city where American whaling first began. Located near Cape Cod in Massachusetts

Nantucket

The inn where Ishmael first meets Queequeg. It is a whaler's inn, with various whaling weapons hung on the walls, and a bar set inside the jaw of a whale. The landlord is Peter Coffin

The Spouter Inn

A British sailing ship, it's captain, Captain Boomer, lost an arm to Moby-Dick to match Ahab's lost leg.

The Samuel Enderby

A ship who's captain lost his son to Moby Dick. When he asks for Ahab's help to find the lost boy, Ahab refuses. The Rachel is the ship that picks up Ishmael after the Pequod has sunk.

The Rachel

The last ship that the Pequod sees; they are dropping a body into the ocean, and they have lost three other men in hunting Moby Dick.

The Delight

the type of whale Moby is, have huge rounded heads, hunted for their spermeceti which is stored in their heads, largest toothed whale as well as largest toothed predator

Sperm Whale

arge, mostly black whale with whitish patches on the head and belly, no dorsal fin, and a graceful, deeply notched "fluke," or tail; thick blubber that yielded lots of oil, the right whale was an early and favorite target of whalers; remain afloat after they've been killed

Right Whale

Queequeg's home, and island in the South Pacific, is "not down on any map; true places never are.

Kokovoko

cousin of Peter Coffin, landlord of inn Ishmael and Queequeg stay at in Nantucket, not seen in the book

Hosea Hussey

sailor on the Pequod who has excellent hearing, knows there are stowaways on the boat because he hears them coughing

Archy

does not believe Archy when he says there are stowaways

Cabaco

a type of robe often worn by priests, in this book the Cassock is made out of the skin of a whale's penis, the whaler's skin it and turn it into sleeves for the "mincer"

The Cassock

The Captain of the Rachel

Captain Cassock

-he lost his son at sea

Captain Cassock

-frantically looking for son

Captain Cassock

-his boat saves Ishmael

Captain Cassock

Dereck De-Deer

The Captain of the Jungfrau (the virgin) he comes to the Pequod to beg for some oil, then tries to out race them in pursuit of a whale.

-captain of German whaling ship

Dereck De-Deer

-has captured no whales

Dereck De-Deer

-needs oil for lamps

Dereck De-Deer

-trying to catch a fin whale at the time

Dereck De-Deer

The oldest sailor aboard the Pequod, who passes occasional words of wisdom.

Manxman

The Captain of the Rachel

Captain Gardiner

Flask's Nickname

King-Post

Captain of the Jeroboam

Captain Mayhew

Females in a "school" of whales, with one male "lord"

Harem

Doctor on the Samuel Enderby

Doctor Bunger