Ahab soliloquizes that the pipe no longer soothes him, rejects it as unsuitable for his troubled state, and vows to smoke no more.
After smoking for several moments, thick vapor repeatedly blows back into Ahab’s face. He breaks into soliloquy, withdrawing the pipe and declaring that smoking no longer soothes him. He addresses the pipe directly, musing that if its charm has departed, his situation must be dire indeed. Ahab reflects that he has been unconsciously toiling rather than pleasuring, and that he has been smoking to windward throughout in nervous whiffs, as if like a dying whale, his final jets are the strongest and fullest of trouble. He questions what business he has with a pipe meant for sereneness and mild white vapors, not for someone like himself with torn iron-grey locks and a troubled spirit. Concluding his introspection, he declares he will smoke no more.
Ahab throws the lit pipe into the sea, then paces the planks with a slouched hat as the ship passes the sinking pipe’s bubble.
In a decisive gesture, Ahab tosses the still-lighted pipe into the sea. The fire hisses as it meets the waves, and at the same instant, the Pequod shoots past the bubble created by the sinking pipe. The chapter ends with Ahab lurchingly pacing the planks, his hat slouched low. This final image captures Ahab’s restless energy and the symbolic severance from the pipe’s former comfort, marking a transition as the ship continues its relentless pursuit through the ocean.
KAPITEL 31. : Queen Mab
This is Chapter 31 (titled Queen Mab, indexed as chapter 31, numbered as chapter 35 of the full work). The chapter opens the morning after prior events with Stubb approaching Flask to share a strange dream.
Stubb Recounts His Bizarre Dream to Flask
Stubb recounts a bizarre dream to Flask: in the dream, Captain Ahab kicked Stubb with his ivory leg, leading Stubb to kick back and break his own leg off. Ahab then transforms into a pyramid Stubb repeatedly kicks, while Stubb rationalizes the original kick is not a true insult, as Ahab used a false whalebone leg rather than a living limb. A hunchbacked merman intervenes, turning his marlinspike-covered stern toward Stubb when Stubb threatens to kick him, and argues that Ahab’s kick is an honor, not an insult, before Stubb wakes in his hammock. Flask dismisses the dream as foolish.
Stubb Advises Flask to Avoid Ahab
Stubb tells Flask the dream has made him wise, and advises Flask to leave Captain Ahab alone entirely, never speaking to Ahab no matter what he says, to avoid conflict.
Ahab Calls for White Whale Sightings
Mid-conversation, Ahab shouts to the ship’s masthead lookouts to stay alert, announces whales are nearby, and orders them to shout at the top of their lungs if they spot a white whale.
Stubb Reacts to Ahab’s Announcement
Stubb remarks to Flask that Ahab’s sudden focus on the white whale signals he has something bloody on his mind, warns Flask to stand ready for trouble, and notes that Ahab is walking toward their position.
KAPITEL 32. Cetology.
The chapter opens with an invitation to embark on a deep exploration of whale knowledge. The narrator acknowledges that before the Pequod’s hull can roll alongside the barnacled leviathan, there is a matter essential to understanding the leviathanic revelations to come. He aims to provide a systematized exhibition of the whale in his broad genera, warning that this is no easy task, for it amounts to classifying the constituents of a chaos.
Opening Preamble: Purpose of Cetological Study
The narrator declares his intention to present to the audience a systematized exhibition of the whale across his broad genera. He recognizes the difficulty of this endeavor, noting that he will draw upon the best and latest authorities while acknowledging that no branch of zoology is more involved than cetology.
Challenges of Cetological Classification
The chapter presents a chorus of authoritative voices attesting to the difficulty of whale classification. Captain Scoresby from 1820 states that no branch of zoology is so much involved as cetology. Surgeon Beale from 1839 observes that utter confusion exists among the historians of the sperm whale. Even the great lights of zoology and anatomy—Cuvier, John Hunter, and Lesson—speak of whales in terms of unfitness for research, impenetrable veils covering knowledge, and fields strewn with thorns that torture naturalists.
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