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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments i
Abstract ii
摘要 iii
1.Introduction 1
1.1 Herman Melville and Moby Dick 1
1.2 Kantian Philosophy 1
2. Literature Review 3
2.1 Different Opinions of Scholar on Moby Dick 3
2.2 Description of the Main Figures in Moby Dick 5
2.3 Ahab’s “Individualism” 7
3 Natural Consciousness of Main Characters 8
3.1 Natural Consciousness of Ahab 8
3.2 Natural Consciousness of Starbuck 9
3.3 Natural Consciousness of Ishmael 10
4 The Symbolism of Relationship between Man and Nature in Moby Dick 12
4.1 The Hidden Relationship between Main Characters and Nature 12
4.2 The True Meaning of the Relationship between Man and Nature 13
5 Modern Value of the Relationship between Man and Nature in Moby Dick 15
5.1 Ecological Revelation 15
5.2 Practical Significance 16
6 Conclusion 18
Bibliography 19
1.Introduction
1.1 Herman Melville and Moby Dick
Herman Melville is not only one of the greatest romanticists in American literary history but also an influential writer in world literature. Moby Dick, Herman Melville's masterpiece, is now considered to be one of the world's greatest works although the initial critical responses to this novel were generally negative. Moby Dick is the sixth novel published by Herman Melville. It mixes a number of literary styles including a fictional adventure story, historical details and even scientific discussions. The central story of Moby Dick is the conflict between Pequod Captain Ahab and Moby Dick, a vicious white whale that once tears off one of Ahab's legs. During the voyage Ahab reveals to his crew that he seeks revenge upon Moby Dick and drives himself and his crew in a desperate search for his enemy over the sea. The whole story is told through a seafarer Ishmael's retrospective narration. When the whale is at last sighted and attacked, it rams the ship and kills Ahab and all of the crew except Ishmael. Moby Dick reveals Melville's profound insight into the relationship between human beings and nature and his preoccupation with human fate in the universe. In Moby Dick, Melville has woven the Pequod crew of different races and beliefs together. By analyzing the connection and contrast of their actions and fates in front of nature, this thesis is to summarize the proper way that human beings and nature interact.
1.2 Kantian Philosophy
Immanuel Kant is a German philosopher and astronomer, who is one of the founders of Nebular Hypothesis and also is the founder of German classical philosophy. Kanti is an idealist, who establishes the German classical aesthetics. He is regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe, and is the last major philosopher of the Enlightenment .The pursuit of ontology is an eternal topic in philosophy. Kant's theory reflects his thinking of the problems in the ontology. He thinks that ontology and phenomenon is different. Ontology is there, but it only exists in the unique experience on the other side of the world, where we can't reach.. If human attempt to know those issues outside of the transcendent field, which will bring all kinds of contradictions. These contradictions, however, seem to be correct because we mistake these phenomenon with the theories about the ontology. And in Moby Dick, Ishmael accepts and reflects Kant’s philosophy. In Moby Dick, Ishmael is a figure full of thinking. From the beginning to the end of the novel, he is always thinking about the world. He gets confused with paradoxical experience and phenomenon, and wants to understand things under the phenomenon. But he admits the incomprehensibility of ontology, and he has the toleration and acceptance of all these paradoxes. Actually from many aspects we can find that Ishmael represents the writer-Herman Melville, in another way, Melville creates Ishmael to express his thoughts and feelings to Kant’s philosophy. And from many details of the novel we find that Melville was really familiar with Kant. For example, in chapter 70，whale's head is considered as The Great Sphinx which can generally not be understood. Ishmael asserts that he can never understand or know about the whale. He says,” so what does a whale look like, nobody can tell in this world.” Ishmael wants to search the essence concealing behind the present phenomenon, but he finds that the nature is unknowable. He accepts the contradiction of opposites about the phenomenon. Ishmael is swaying between different philosophical views. He puts the rationalist and an idealist, empiricist and pragmatist into comparison, and also makes comparison to Kant and Locke. And in Chapter 73, there are two whale’s heads handing on both sides of Pequod, and Melville compares one of them as Kant and another as Locke. Both of them keep the balance of the ship. Meanwhile, the novel tells the writer’s philosophical thought about the world and life. In a manner of speaking, Kantian Philosophy really makes huge impression on Herman Melville’s creation of Moby Dick.