Due Today
Moby Dick: Fate & Free Will Questions
Agenda
Moby Dick Theme #3 - Madness/Insanity
Today, we discussed the theme of madness and insanity as it applies to Moby Dick. Then, students were to answer the following questions about madness/insanity:
Today, we discussed the theme of madness and insanity as it applies to Moby Dick. Then, students were to answer the following questions about madness/insanity:
(1) Why does Melville specifically emphasize that Ahab’s madness is a form of "monomania" (obsession with a single thing)?
(2) In what respects is Ahab sane? In what respects is he insane?
(3) How does Ahab’s monomania interact with his status as a tragic hero? Does it make him more heroic or more tragic, or less of either?
(4) Would we understand Ahab’s character differently if he had had a straightforward psychotic break rather than a madness that develops slowly, over a long period of time, after his encounter with Moby Dick?
(2) In what respects is Ahab sane? In what respects is he insane?
(3) How does Ahab’s monomania interact with his status as a tragic hero? Does it make him more heroic or more tragic, or less of either?
(4) Would we understand Ahab’s character differently if he had had a straightforward psychotic break rather than a madness that develops slowly, over a long period of time, after his encounter with Moby Dick?
Homework
Finish the madness/insanity questions due tomorrow, 12/11/15.
Finish the madness/insanity questions due tomorrow, 12/11/15.
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