A Journey of Celestial Lights: The Sky as Allegory in Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’

Scholars have long sought a blueprint that cohesively ties together various events and characters in ‘Moby Dick’; a 'key' that will unlock its secrets and allow a greater understanding of the novel. After 150 years, we have Melville’s key: the sky. In his PhD thesis, John F. Birk suggested that, as the Pequod sails from one ocean to the next in search of the great white whale, it sails through the twelve traditional constellations of the zodiac. Birk identifies thirteen characters with zodiacal constellations, and a few non-zodiacal constellations with individual chapters. However, Melville’s genius goes further in his use of astronomical phenomena than Birk suggests. The Pequod leaves Nantucket at noon on December 25, 1838 and is destroyed by the white whale at sunset January 4, 1840. His use of six of the nine 'gams' or meetings between the Pequod with other whale ships on the high seas provide the necessary planetary data to precisely determine, for the first time, the year at sea. The white whale provides the day of destruction and constellations the hour. Further, Melville was able to relate phases of the moon, solar eclipses, comets, meteor showers, constellations, stars and other celestial events of that year to story events, structure and characters. Using this new understanding, one can see ‘Moby Dick’ – and indeed the sky –as Herman Melville did. No longer must it remain his '…most admired and least understood novel'.