Title: Return to the Text: A New Interpretation of the Denouement of Moby-Dick

Abstract: Melville’s masterpiece Moby-Dick is a prophetical novel which has attracted much critical attention since its publication. But as to the finale of the novel, most Chinese critics hold the opinion that both the whale Moby-Dick and the hero captain Ahab die together at the end of the novel. This paper argues that such a reading is a misunderstanding of the original text, which not only distorts the original but also dwarfs the novel’s profound moral. Our interpretation reveals that Melville’s divine Moby-Dick is immortal and it will never die together with any man.

Keywords: Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, denouement

Author: Quan Yang, Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.