Ahab’s Mock Custom Man Order
Ahab delivers a fantastical order for a complete man to be forged by Prometheus: fifty feet tall, with a chest modeled after the Thames Tunnel, legs with roots to keep them stationary, arms three feet through the wrist, no heart, a brass forehead, a quarter acre of brains, and a skylight on top of the head instead of outward-looking eyes. The bewildered Carpenter wonders who Ahab is speaking to and whether he should continue standing there.
Ahab Teases the Carpenter About Lantern Light
Ahab notices the carpenter’s lantern and criticizes “thrusted light” as worse than presented pistols. When the carpenter assumes Ahab was addressing him, Ahab rebukes him and asks if he would prefer working in clay. The carpenter is confused, and when asked about his sneezing, he explains bone dust is the cause. Ahab cryptically advises him never to bury himself under living people’s noses, leaving the carpenter baffled.
Phantom Limb Sensation Discussion
Ahab asks if the carpenter considers himself a good workman, then poses a riddle: when he mounts the new leg, he will still feel his old lost leg—the flesh and blood one—in the same place. The carpenter admits he has heard of this phenomenon, how a dismasted man never entirely loses the feeling of his old spar. Ahab confirms this is true, demonstrating by placing his live leg where his missing one was, noting that though only one leg is visible, there are two in the soul. He feels the tingling sensation where his flesh leg once was.
Ahab’s Invisible Presence Riddle
Ahab poses a philosophical riddle: how does one know that some entire, living, thinking thing may not be invisibly standing precisely where one stands, despite one’s spite? He asks if the carpenter fears eavesdroppers in his most solitary hours. He then connects this to his phantom leg pain, asking why the carpenter might not feel the fiery pains of hell forever without a body. The carpenter replies he may need to “calculate over again” as he may have made an error.
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