Moby Dick Ahab Quotes Analysis

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In order to express Ahab’s desire for revenge, Melville compares the whale head to a Sphinx. A sphinx is thought to possess knowledge of unrevealed secrets much like the whale head is believed to. Ahab is beginning to display signs of psychosis as he further loses touch with reality and becomes consumed with getting revenge on Moby Dick. This is demonstrated in the quote above because he is speaking to a dead whale with no ability to respond. Desperately searching for answers in the whale that can’t give him what he is searching for, Ahab demonstrates his hunger for revenge. He believes the whale holds secrets to where he can find Moby Dick because he is compared to a Sphinx and “has dived the deepest of all divers.” Ahab believes this whale