Melville's Affidavit

It is said that the best way to learn something is to teach it, a truth I'm discovering now as a teacher of American literature. I've been reading Moby Dick with an intensity of interest I can only attribute to the fact that I want to do right by my students and present the material as best I can. It helps that I love Melville's philosophical and narrative exploits, as well as the literary virtuosity of the thing. What is most striking to me, however, is the deeply personal aspect of Melville's story. One of the most fascinating aspects of Moby Dick is the ways in which it is not a novel, but rather a manifesto or, even more, a testament. 

In chapter 45, "The Affidavit," Melville suggests the Biblical dimension of his narrative, comparing his descriptions of whales to Moses' descriptions of the plagues of Egypt. The whole point of this chapter is to ground the story of Ahab's mad pursuit of the white whale in historical fact, to establish it as not mere fable or allegory, but as a true description of whales and those who hunt them. Yet, by comparing his tale to that of Moses, Melville suggests that this story should be taken as myth, one comparable to a Biblical tale. 

No doubt, Melville wants to convey some of the literal truth of whaling, too. Chapters are devoted to the history and science of whales and whaling. Some of it is speculative, some critical, but little does any of this further the narrative. Rather, it is aimed at documenting Melville's own experience and insight into the subject. In such chapters, the narrator may as well be Melville himself, and not Ishmael. 

Melville experiments with narrative voice so much that, even though Ishmael begins and often carries the narrative, several other characters become narrator in various chapters. In still other chapters, the narrative is given in the omniscient third-person. 

There is at least one chapter--Chapter 45, "The Affidavit"--in which the narrative voice cannot be attributed to Ishmael or any other character in the book, and yet which is not third-person at all. It can only be that of Melville himself. While several of the other chapters, such as those pertaining to the classification and description of whales, might be attributed either to Melville or Ishmael, Chapter 45 belongs to Melville alone. 

Our curiosity is aroused at the very beginning of the chapter, when the narrator acknowledges the fact that this is a book, and that the narrative of the book itself is fractured. It would be strange for Ishmael to speak of the narrative as if from the outside, though this, I admit, is not conclusive evidence. Nor is it conclusive that, in this chapter, the narrator appeals to historical facts--for Ishmael may himself be privy to such facts. No, the conclusive evidence comes when the narrator identifies himself as the nephew of one of the historical figures he is discussing, one Captain D'Wolf. As a point of fact, Herman Melville was this captain's nephew. 

Would Melville have us believe that Ishmael is to be his own brother, or perhaps his cousin? If such were Melville's intent, he would surely have gone about it in a better way. The simplest and by far the most plausible explanation is this, that Melville had no qualms about speaking openly, as himself. This makes sense, considering his goal of blending fact and fiction in the mythologizing of whales and whaling. His willingness to speak as himself solidifies his effort to write more than a novel, but a testament to his own existential quest. It is not a coincidence that his own voice is only explicit in this particular chapter, as it is the one meant to directly connect the biblical dimensions of the story to his personal quest for meaning.