【正文】 ale as the personification of power and strength, as Stubb says in the inn, “If God where to be any fish, he would be a whale,” the quote proves that the whale holds a great deal of power. It’s also obvious that to confront a whale is much like confronting Mother Nature or God. One of the first remarks that makes about the whale is “Aye, it was Moby Dick that tore my body and soul until they bled into each other.” This quote, by captain Ahab, describes the whale as not only having power to destroy in the physical realm, but also to ruin in the spiritual world. Many biblical allusions in the story reinforce the notion that Moby Dick is an instrument of God if not God himself.Through these and other small clues and symbols, Melville hints that Moby Dick is sacred and godlike. He destroys those who seek to destroy Moby Dick. Harry Mackey, second mate of the Jeroboam, who pursues Moby Dick, is killed. However, Ahab, suggestive of an Old Testament conception of God, sees Moby Dick as unjust and too powerful. For the character Ahab, however, the whale represents only evil. Moby Dick is like a wall, hiding some unknown, a mysterious thing behind. Ahab wills the whole crew on the Pequod to join him in the pursuit of the big whale so as to pierce the wall, to root out the evil, but only to be destroyed by evil, in this case, by his own consuming desire, his madness.III. The Symbolic Meanings of AhabAhab is the central character and the primary focus of the novel, despite his mysterious and longdelayed appearance. Long before Ahab actually interacts with Ishmael and the other characters, Melville establishes him as an impressive and tragic figure, deserving of sympathy. Most of the details surrounding Ahab contain some elements of legend, such as the story that he loses one of his legs, and Melville further creates a tension between Ahab’s supposed grandeur and his more fearsome qualities. Pelage describes him as simultaneously that the dynamic between these sides of Ahab’s personality will form the primary internal struggle against Moby Dick. Melville additionally continues the Biblical allusions that dominate the character’s name. The name Ahab in Moby Dick is symbolic and taken from the Bible, in which Ahab is described as a king who turns vile, suggesting that the Ahab of this novel will be a similarly conflicted leader. Ahab is an evil man having had someone killed so he could be king. Mysterious captain Ahab, a bination of Macbeth, Job, and Milton’s Satan, appears after several days at sea. Melville names the character after the Israelite king who worshiped the pagan sun god Baal.Ahab’s blasphemous hunt of Moby Dick has made him a sinner against God. Ahab wants to look through the “pasteboard mask” of reality and see what is behind physical objects. He wants to look behind the mask of Moby Dick and see God, to challenge him and question his justness. Ahab believes God is oblivious to the suffering of mankind and even states, “ sometimes I think there’s naught beyond” the mask of Moby Dick. Not only has Ahab questioned God’s justice。 counterpane ContentsI. Introduction ………………………………………………………………...…6II. The Symbolic Meanings of Moby Dick …………………………..…………7 1. Moby Dick’s Characteristics ……………………………………….…….7 2. Moby Dick’s Whiteness…………………………………………….…….83. Moby Dick’s Power and Strength ……………………...……………..…..8III. The Symbolic Meanings of Ahab …………………………...……………....9 1. The Name Ahab ………. ……………...……………………………...…10 2. Ahab’s Madness…………………………………………………....……..10 3. Ahab’s Characters ………………………………………...……...………12IV. The Symbolic Meanings of Counterpane ………………………………..….14 1. The Grandiose Sea…………………………………………...…….……..14 2. The Crew of the Pequod……………………………………………....….14 3. The Character Queequeg…………………………………….….…………16V. Conclusion ………………………………………...…………………….…...18Notes……………………………………………………………...……..…….…19Bibliography………………………………………………………………...…...20I. IntroductionMoby Dick is Melville’s masterpiece, but it is overlooked in its author’s time. The revival interest in Moby Dick in the 1920s is of the most dramatic reversals in all literary history. From a byline in the textbooks, Melville bees, overnight, one of the halfdozen major American literary figures of the 19th century. Some critics hold it the greatest American novel. They assert that there is no other character as manding as Ahab and no other book as full of such action, religion, philosophy, detailed information about a way of life, democratic beliefs, humor, tremendous variety of style and allusions. Therefore, Moby Dick has been studied and analyzed on different points by hundreds of writers. Some writers focus on the protagonist Ahab, who is seen as the tragic hero。 God。 床單Title: A Reading of Symbols in Moby DickAbstract: Moby Dick is not merely a whaling tale or sea adventure, but also a philosophic novel with symbolic meanings. Moby Dick represents God owing to his godlike characters and his awfully severe beauty. Ahab symbolizes the league human with evil. In the whaling trip, we can see his bravery and patience, as well as his madness and stubbornness. The third symbolic element is the idea of the “counterpane” that is woven throughout the story as a symbol of the world’s multiculturalism. Melville develops the symbol proving that the world is indeed a counterpane of diverse cultures, races, and environment, in which we are always connected by our humanity. Key words: Moby Dick。 上帝。關(guān)鍵詞：白鯨。埃哈布船長為復(fù)仇遠(yuǎn)涉重洋捕捉白鯨，最后自己，同伴與白鯨同歸于盡的事跡，既表現(xiàn)了人類的勇敢與忍耐，也反映了他們的偏執(zhí)與瘋狂。本科生畢業(yè)論文《白鯨》的象征意義A Reading of Symbols in Moby Dick題目：《白鯨》的象征意義摘要:《白鯨》使美國作家麥爾維爾譽(yù)滿全球,它不僅是一部驚心動(dòng)魄的災(zāi)難歷險(xiǎn)小說，也是一部被賦予象征意味的哲理小說。其中的白鯨被描寫成無處不在，無所不能的萬能的上帝。另一個(gè)貫穿全文的象征就是“床單”，它象征世界不同文化的混合與交織，世界就像一塊由多種布拼湊而成的床單，由不同的文化、種族、背景交織而成，人們?cè)谝黄鹣嗷ヒ揽?，相互依存，小說中來自不同國家的船員就是最生動(dòng)形象的體現(xiàn)。 埃哈布。 人類。 Arab。 human。 some writers state that all mor