Hermann Melville "Moby Dick"

Conclusion

As its title implies, the chapter ―The Gilder‖ testifies to the work of an artist who reveals the beauty of his subject with the application of an outer layer of gold. This polished surface unifies all of the elements that might otherwise appear to be hopelessly divergent, eliciting a universal understanding and appreciation in the eyes of the viewer. Melville‘s golden gild is his exquisite language. His skills as a wordsmith enable him to unite all the horror and the hope of the world into a singular vision of truth. The oceanic language and themes he develops in Moby-Dick are key to Melville‘s creation of a work of the human imagination that comes together as ―one seamless whole‖ (535).

Melville knows the value a single word can carry across time, culture, and even different languages. Early in the novel, even before Ishmael introduces himself, Melville emphasizes the importance of the word whale in ―Etymology.‖ As per the dictionaries he cites in this section, whale stems from several of the parent languages of English (Swedish, Danish, Dutch, and German) for ―roundness or rolling‖ and ―to roll, to wallow.

In ―The Counterpane,‖ even before he embarks on the whaling voyage, Ishmael literally and figuratively wakes up to discover that our life is better when we realize it is a shared one. He cannot differentiate between Queequeg‘s tattooed arm and the patchwork quilt, ―they so blended their hues together‖. In Queequeg‘s ―most loving and affectionate‖ embrace, Ishmael begins to realize the inherent unity of life. He starts to see that he and this stranger from halfway around the world have everything in common in spite of their superficial differences. Master word gilder that he is, Melville develops the ocean into a macrocosm of this counterpane. In the same way the quilt covers and binds Ishmael and Queequeg together, the sea envelops the planet and serves as a reminder that the world is our community.