Bulkington (Chapter 23) Chapter 20-25 Reading
Posted on September 14, 2008
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We first met Bulkington in the Spouter-Inn. He was introduced as a loner and was foretold to be a ship mate of Ishmael’s. In chapter 23, Ishmael sees this brute at the helm of the Pequod. Ishmael then goes on a tangent expressing his fearfulness and awe upon this man. Bulkington had just come back from a four year voyage. Ishmael cannot believe after four years on a ship whaling, that a man would crave another dangerous voyage. He talks about all the safety a port should bring a mariner. Ishmael’s great description of comfort, hearthstone, supper, blankets and friends made me too question Bulkinton’s sanity. He compares mans lust for port with the ships dire refuge for the sea’s landlessness.
“Know ye now, Bulkington? Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore?”
I read this quote over and over trying to decipher it. I feel that Melville is foreshadowing the doom that will be bestowed on the Pequod. It seems obvious that this quote has to do with some kind of fate. Melville has foreshadowed a great deal since the book has started. I am starting to wonder if Melville is doing this on purpose or not. He was a very accomplished writer even before this book was written. In class we discussed that maybe Melville is writing as Ishmael, a inexperienced and depressed grade school teacher. Any one have any other thoughts about this quotation or Melvilles intentions?
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