101 pages • 3 hours read
Herman MelvilleMoby Dick
Herman MelvilleFiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1851A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
CHAPTERS 1-20
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the inn where Ishmael stays?
2. Who is Ishmael’s bedmate at the inn?
3. Who is Captain Peleg?
4. What is Elijah’s warning to Ishmael and Queequeg?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. From what city does Ishmael want to sail? Why? What city does he sail from instead?
2. Who is Father Mapple? What is his sermon about?
3. How did Queequeg come to America?
Paired Resource
- This short article in The Lancet summarizes the history of hypochondria, linked in Melville’s time to depression and “melancholia.”
- This information connects to the theme of “Hypos.”
- What did “hypochondria” mean to Melville and his contemporary audience? How is the 19th-century idea of hypochondria similar to the modern idea of depression? How is it different?
CHAPTERS 21-44
Reading Check
1. Who interrupts Ishmael and Queequeg as they are boarding the departing Pequod?
2. Who is Stubb?
3. Who is Flask’s second hand?
4. What is a “specksnyder”?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Ishmael believe whaling to be a rewarding profession?
2. Why is the study of whales so difficult?
3. Who is Moby Dick? Why is Ahab so intent on catching him?
4. What is “the chart”?
Paired Resource
- This 20-minute instructive video from Real Science focuses on the biology of the sperm whale. (Content Warning: Some mature content and discussion of whaling; narration and title include insensitive use of terminology.)
- This information connects to the theme of The Supremacy of Nature.
- What are some ways Melville departs from true science in his depiction of the sperm whale and its biology? What departures are likely the result of lack of knowledge about the biology of whales in the 19th century?
CHAPTERS 45-80
Reading Check
1. What is “gam”?
2. Why is a whale-line never secured to a boat?
3. Why does the Pequod not board the Jeroboam?
4. Who saves Tashtego when he falls into the head case of the whale?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why must Ahab continue to operate the Pequod as an ordinary whale ship?
2. Why does Ahab order a right whale to be captured?
Paired Resource
- This resource presents an overview of some superstitions held by sailors throughout history.
- This information connects to the theme of Individual Versus Collective Responsibility.
- How do maritime superstitions play into the way fate is represented in the novel?
CHAPTERS 81-98
Reading Check
1. Why is Java dangerous?
2. What is a “schoolmaster”?
3. What are the try-works?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is Ambergris? Why is it so valuable?
2. What happens on Pip’s third lowering?
CHAPTER 99-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. How did the captain of the Samuel Enderby lose his arm?
2. Why does Starbuck urge Ahab to slow the ship?
3. Who is Perth?
4. How is Ishmael saved?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Queequeg ask the carpenter to build him a canoe?
2. Why does Starbuck consider murdering Ahab?
3. What does the captain of the Rachel ask Ahab? How does Ahab respond?
4. Summarize the climactic events of the novel and the resolution. What are the fates of the Pequod, Ahab, Ishmael, and Moby Dick?
Paired Resource
“The True-Life Horror That Inspired Moby Dick ”
- This Smithsonian article tells the story of the Essex, the whale ship that inspired Melville’s Moby Dick.
- This information connects to the theme of The Supremacy of Nature.
- Compare and contrast the story of the Essex with Melville’s representation of the fictional Pequod. What details of the Essex’s story are represented in Moby Dick?
Recommended Next Reads
Typee by Herman Melville
- Melville’s first book is a classic example of American travel literature.
- Shared themes include The Supremacy of Nature and Individual Versus Collective Responsibility.
- Shared topics include travel, adventure, and American literature.
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
- This famous adventure story is told from the perspective of a sled dog.
- Shared themes include The Supremacy of Nature.
- Shared topics include travel, adventure, harsh environments, American literature, and companionship.
- The Call of the Wild on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-20
Reading Check
1. The Spouter Inn (Chapter 2)
2. Queequeg (Chapter 3)
3. One of the owners of the Pequod (Chapter 16)
4. To beware Captain Ahab (Chapter 19)
Short Answer
1. Ishmael decides to set sail from Nantucket because Nantucket is the oldest and best-known whaling port in the country. He misses the boat to Nantucket, however, and goes to New Bedford instead. (Chapter 2)
2. Father Mapple is the pastor of the Whalemen’s Chapel in New Bedford. Ishmael listens to a sermon he delivers on Jonah and the importance of the Christian faith in helping a person find the inner truth. (Chapter 9)
3. Queequeg explains to Ishmael that he came to America from his native Polynesian island Kokovoko on a whaling ship because he was interested in seeing the world of Christendom. He has since determined that men are similar everywhere, no matter the religious background. (Chapter 12)
CHAPTERS 21-44
Reading Check
1. Elijah (Chapter 21)
2. The ship’s second mate (Chapter 22)
3. Ahasuerus Dagoo (Chapter 27)
4. A ship’s chief harpooner, who in earlier days shared authority over a whaleship with the captain. (Chapter 33)
Short Answer
1. Ishmael advocates for whaling, saying that it is a noble profession because whale oil provides light, heat, and fuel to people all over the world. (Chapter 24)
2. Ishmael explains that the study of whales (cetology) is a difficult subject because whales are rarely sighted except by whalers, and most studies are based on dead whales that washed up on shore rather than on living whales. (Chapter 32)
3. Moby Dick is a particularly large albino sperm whale that is notoriously hard to catch and known to be aggressive against ships. The whale has been seen with harpoons embedded in its body from previous encounters with whalers. Ahab wants to catch Moby Dick because he is the whale who took his leg. (Chapter 36)
4. Ahab’s chart is a series of oceanographic maps that Ahab is using to chart sightings of Moby Dick. Ahab uses the chart to try to predict where Moby Dick will be next. (Chapter 44)
CHAPTERS 45-80
Reading Check
1. The practice by which whale ships exchange crew upon meeting at sea (Chapter 53)
2. Because a whale could drag the entire boat down (Chapter 60)
3. Because there is a plague on the Jeroboam (Chapter 71)
4. Queequeg (Chapter 78)
Short Answer
1. Though Ahab is intent on catching Moby Dick, he must still operate the Pequod as an ordinary whale ship and catch other whales because if he simply usurps the ship’s stated mission it could lead the crew to mutiny against him (which would not suit his purpose). (Chapter 46)
2. Though right whales are known to be inferior, Ahab orders that a right whale be caught because of a superstition that a ship with a sperm whale’s head to its starboard side and a right whale’s head opposite can never sink. (Chapter 73)
CHAPTERS 81-98
Reading Check
1. Java is known for its many local pirates. (Chapter 87)
2. The dominant whale in a school (Chapter 88)
3. A giant masonry furnace in whale ships used to render blubber into whale oil (Chapter 96)
Short Answer
1. Ambergris is a substance found in the bowels of sick or dead whales. It is used in perfumes and fine cooking, and is therefore very valuable. (Chapter 92)
2. When Pip jumps from a boat as it is racing after a whale, he thinks that he has been abandoned in the open sea, as it is several hours before the crew of the Pequod comes to rescue him. This experience causes him to have delusions and be unable to think rationally. (Chapter 93)
CHAPTER 99-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. To Moby Dick (Chapter 100)
2. Because the whale-oil casks have sprung a leak (Chapter 109)
3. The Pequod’s elderly blacksmith (Chapter 112)
4. Ishmael is picked up by the Rachel. (Epilogue)
Short Answer
1. Queequeg falls very ill. Thinking that he is dying, he asks the carpenter to build him a canoe like the one the whalemen of Nantucket use for sea burial. (Chapter 110)
2. As Starbuck becomes more and more concerned about Ahab’s dangerous obsession with Moby Dick, he considers murdering Ahab to protect the crew of the Pequod. (Chapter 123)
3. The captain of the Rachel begs Ahab for help in finding some crewmates lost while pursuing Moby Dick, one of whom was the captain’s son. Ahab, not wanting to waste time, refuses to help. (Chapter 128)
4. After chasing the whale for two days, Ahab attempts to kill Moby Dick himself on the third day; he becomes entangled in the harpoon line, however, and dies. The whale smashes into the Pequod, and Ishmael is the only surviving crew member left to tell the tale.
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