Скачать или смотреть The Gold Doubloon in Moby Dick Explained | Moby Dick Chapter 99

#mobydick #literaryworks #thewhitewhale #hermanmelville #thegoldcoin #thegolddoubloon

In this short video, I analyze the famous Gold Doubloon or Gold Coin from Moby Dick. The video includes a short excerpt from Gregory Peck's 1956 movie "Moby Dick" before delving into the context of the coin and the symbolic nature of it. Specifically, I reference text within Chapter 4 and Chapter 99. I have included a basic summary of what I say in the video for your convenience, as well as references to the text itself.

What is important is not what Ahab says here about the coin (as famous as it is), it is what the coin symbolizes. First, the original quote from Chapter 4 (simply titled "The Gold Coin") reads:

"Ahab looked at us with fierce satisfaction and suddenly pulled out a large gold coin. 'Here is a Spanish gold coin! A sixteen- dollar piece! Do you see it? Mr. Starbuck, give me the hammer!' He placed the shiny gold coin on the main mast and put a nail through it. The big gold coin was now on the mast and shone in the sun.

'Whoever sees the white whale first will get the gold coin,' cried Ahab."

It is not until Chapter 99 (titled "The Doubloon") that the coin truly takes on a symbolic form. How so? Each man on the ship desires the coin, but for different reasons. The coin reflects those reasons; or, as Ahab believes: "This round gold is but the image of the rounder globe, which, like a magician’s glass, to each and every man in turn but mirrors back his own mysterious self". Granted, Ahab is wrong that the coin reflects everyone's "self", as only he sees himself in the coin; however, the coin DOES give the reader insight into each man's thoughts. For Ahab, the coin reflects a variety of his self-perceived qualities (power, courage, etc.), but it also indirectly reflects his desire to kill Moby Dick. If he claims the coin from the mast, this means that the ship has found Moby Dick and Ahab will finally have a chance to exact his revenge against the White Whale. But, here is the rub: having a chance to kill the whale is not good enough, of course. Thus, in Chapter 133 when Ahab spots the whale (""There she blows!—there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!"), he transforms the emblematic nature of the coin again, stating that the coin will stay on the mast until "the day [Moby Dick] shall be killed". Thus, for Ahab, it no longer symbolizes spotting the White Whale. It now symbolizes Moby Dick's death. Although the coin is symbolic of revenge for Ahab, Starbuck sees the coin as a reflection of Christian iconography, Flasks thinks of the monetary worth of the coin, and Queequeg ponders on his homeland. Pip, however, notably recognizes the coin for what it truly is: the destruction of The Pequod and the death of its crew. Calling the coin the ship's "navel", Pip speaks on the "consequence" of "unscrew[ing] your navel". The consequence would not be good, obviously. Thus, just as Ahab nailed the coin to the mast, the White Whale, says Pip, will "nail" Ahab.

Chapter 4: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-di...
Chapter 99: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-di...
Chapter 133: https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-di...

Subscribe for more literary quote analysis (in shorts), literary films, radio plays, and resources:    / @studywithdrf