This term paper explores the chapter “The Town-Ho’s Story” of Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick (1851) in two aspects: its intertextual connection with the myth of the feud between Agamemnon and Achilles and its role in the entirety of Melville’s work.
Intertextual theory, chosen as the key theoretical framework for this paper, provides the grounds and analytical instruments for registering similar patterns in seemingly distant — chronologically and thematically — texts. This, on the first glance, is the case of the Iliad (Homer) and Moby-Dick. However, through bringing them together and comparing what and how the authors wrote them, some symptoms and problematic points of our culture can be discovered. Here, those will be unharnessed masculine rage and pride as a cause of destruction.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Intertextuality: An Open Dialogue
- The "Town-Ho's Story" Outside and Inside Moby-Dick
- The Limits of Authority: "The Town-Ho's Story" and the Myth of Achilles
- The Unlimitedness of Ambition: “The Town-Ho's Story” and Moby-Dick
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This term paper explores the chapter "The Town-Ho's Story" from Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick (1851, cited as M.D.) in two aspects: its intertextual connection with the myth of the feud between Agamemnon and Achilles and its role in the entirety of Melville's work. Intertextual theory is used as the key theoretical framework to register similar patterns in seemingly distant texts. This paper aims to analyze the destructive power of masculine rage and pride as a cause of destruction, both in the context of the chapter and within the broader framework of the novel.
- Intertextuality and the connection between "The Town-Ho's Story" and the Iliad
- The destructive nature of masculine rage and pride
- The role of "The Town-Ho's Story" in the overall narrative of Moby-Dick
- The criticism of masculinity in its toxic form
- The environmental message conveyed by the novel through the portrayal of the white whale
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The first chapter, titled "Intertextuality: An Open Dialogue," lays the theoretical groundwork for the comparative analysis. It explores the concept of intertextuality, drawing on the works of scholars such as Graham Allen, Scarlet Baron, and Jessica Mason, to establish the terms and framework necessary for analyzing the relationship between seemingly distant texts.
The second chapter, "The 'Town-Ho's Story' Outside and Inside Moby-Dick," is divided into two subchapters. The first subchapter analyzes "The Town-Ho's Story" in parallel with the relevant episode of the Iliad, highlighting the similarities in the narrative tools and themes of masculine rage and pride as the root of conflict. The second subchapter applies the insights from this comparison to the whole of Melville's novel, examining the character of Captain Ahab in light of the themes explored in "The Town-Ho's Story."
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The main keywords and focus topics of this paper include intertextuality, "The Town-Ho's Story," Moby-Dick, the Iliad, masculinity, rage, pride, ambition, destructive power, and environmentalism.
- Quote paper
- Aleksandra Dediukina (Author), 2024, "The Town-Ho’s Story" in Herman Melville’s Novel "Moby-Dick". The Destroying Power of Masculine Rage and Pride, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/1502759
