Character guide

Ishmael

major

Also known as Unknown, the stranger, a stranger, the narrator

Ishmael drifts toward New Bedford with little money and less purpose, drawn by the same tide that pulls thousands of landlocked men to stare at the water. His melancholy is real but wry, and he treats the voyage as a cure for the spleen rather than a calling. Because he narrates everything, his curiosity becomes the reader's own, and his unlikely friendship with a tattooed harpooner turns a commercial voyage into a study of how strangers become shipmates.

Captain Ahab

major

Also known as Ahab, wild Ahab, moody stricken Ahab, old Ahab, awful Ahab, dark Ahab, crazy Ahab, L Ahab

Ahab commands the ship but answers to a wound, and he is shrewd enough to know that men cannot live on vengeance alone. He keeps his officers busy with ordinary whales and daily labor, rationing his obsession so it will not burn out before the quarry appears. His magnetic will bends Starbuck's body if not his soul, and the reader watches a leader convert a working ship into the instrument of a single grudge.

Queequeg

major

Also known as Biographical Queequeg, poor Queequeg, Mr. Queequeg, Quohog

Queequeg arrives in New Bedford with a shrunken head in his baggage and a harpoon he handles like an extension of his arm. He worships Yojo, fasts, and prays in his own way, yet proves more generous and self-possessed than the pious shipowners who call him a son of darkness. When he pins a tar-spot across the deck to demonstrate his aim, Bildad and Peleg hire him on the spot, and his bond with Ishmael becomes the book's warmest counterweight to Ahab's cold fixity.

Starbuck

supporting

Also known as Mr. Starbuck, the staid Starbuck, humane Starbuck

Starbuck runs the ship by conscience and weather-eye, and Ahab knows his chief mate abhors the quest in his soul while obeying it in his body. That split is the voyage's central moral fault line: duty against conviction, livelihood against damnation. He murmurs about loveliness unfathomable over a golden sea, then must turn back to the bloody work at hand, and his resistance, however stifled, keeps the reader asking what loyalty is worth.

Stubb

supporting

Also known as Mr. Stubb, Squires Stubb, choking Stubb, humorous Stubb, Wise Stubb

Stubb laughs at danger, orders a whale steak cut from a fresh kill at midnight, and eats it at the capstan while sharks tear at the carcass below. His good humor is genuine but also a working philosophy, a way of swallowing peril whole without tasting it. Against Ahab's brooding and Starbuck's scruples, Stubb's easy appetite shows how ordinary men survive extraordinary voyages, and how much the ship depends on that resilience.

Flask

supporting

Also known as Mr. Flask, Little Flask, hilarious little Flask, flaxen-haired Flask

Flask is short, pugnacious, and utterly without awe, and he rides to the masthead on the shoulders of the gigantic harpooner Daggoo as if the man were furniture. The image says everything: the noble bearer looks nobler than the rider, yet Flask stamps with impatience and never notices. His cheerful bloodthirstiness strips the whale of mystery, and his pairing with Daggoo quietly exposes the racial and moral hierarchies the ship carries to sea.

Moby Dick

major

Also known as Moby, the White Whale, the Whale, Leviathan

Sailors trade scars and legends about him in every port: a mountain of muscle that sounds without warning, smashes whaleboats, and leaves men drowning in his wake. He is the Pequod's true destination, though the owners believe they are merely whaling. What makes him terrifying is not just his power but the way he seems to answer pursuit with intent — as if the sea itself had grown a will.

Fedallah

supporting

Also known as the Parsee, That Parsee, Ahab the Parsee

He appears on deck without ceremony, shadowing Ahab like a second conscience, and the sailors whisper that he was never signed on the ship's papers. He asks no questions, keeps his own counsel, and seems to know the captain's plans before they are spoken. His presence turns the Pequod's hierarchy strange — a private crew within a crew, loyal to one man's obsession rather than the voyage's stated business.

Pip

minor

Also known as little Pip, Poor Pip, base little Pip, Black Little Pip

A young African American cabin boy who goes mad after being left adrift at sea during a whale chase.

Captain Peleg

minor

Also known as Old Captain Peleg, Peleg

A retired sea captain and part-owner of the Pequod, who interviews and hires Ishmael in Nantucket.

Captain Bildad

minor

Also known as Bildad, worthy Captain Bildad, the pious Bildad, old Bildad, Lank Bildad

A devout Quaker and retired sea captain, part-owner of the Pequod who haggles over Ishmael's lay.

Tashtego

minor

Also known as the Gay-Header, mad Gay-Header, Tash

A skilled Native American harpooner from Gay Head, who serves as Stubb's boat-steerer on the Pequod.

Daggoo

minor

Also known as Ahasuerus Daggoo, gigantic Daggoo

A gigantic African harpooner who serves as Flask's boat-steerer on the Pequod.

Elijah

minor

Also known as Mr. Elijah, stationary Elijah, the ragged Elijah

A mysterious, ragged prophet in Nantucket who warns Ishmael and Queequeg about sailing on the Pequod.

Father Mapple

minor

A former harpooner turned preacher in New Bedford, who delivers a powerful sermon on Jonah and disobedience.

Perth

minor

Also known as old Perth

The blacksmith aboard the Pequod, a broken man who forges Ahab's special harpoon for hunting Moby Dick.

The Carpenter

minor

Also known as Carpenter

The pragmatic, unemotional craftsman aboard the Pequod who repairs gear and fashions Ahab's ivory leg.

Dough-Boy

minor

Also known as poor Dough-Boy, Mr. Dough-Boy, hapless Dough-Boy

The timid, pale steward of the Pequod who serves the mates in the cabin.

Fleece

minor

Also known as old Fleece

The elderly, deaf cook of the Pequod whom Stubb lectures on cooking whale steak properly.

Yojo

minor

Queequeg's small black idol, which he consults for important decisions, including choosing a ship.

Mrs. Hussey

minor

The landlady of the Try Pots Inn in Nantucket, who serves Ishmael and Queequeg excellent clam and cod chowder.

Peter Coffin

minor

Also known as Peter, Coffin

The landlord of the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford, who assigns Ishmael to share a bed with Queequeg.

Aunt Charity

minor

Also known as Charity

Captain Bildad's kind-hearted sister, who provides small comforts for the Pequod's crew before departure.

Bulkington

minor

A stoic, experienced sailor Ishmael sees at the Spouter-Inn, who signs on the Pequod shortly after a long voyage.

Gabriel

minor

A deranged Shaker prophet aboard the Jeroboam who claims Moby Dick is the incarnation of the Shaker God.

Captain Boomer

minor

The jovial, one-armed English captain of the Samuel Enderby, who lost an arm to Moby Dick but bears no grudge.

Dr. Bunger

minor

Also known as Bunger, Johnny, Jack Bunger

The surgeon of the Samuel Enderby, who humorously describes extracting the iron from Captain Boomer's arm.

Captain Gardiner

minor

The distressed captain of the Rachel, who begs Ahab to help search for his son lost in a whaleboat chase.

Steelkilt

minor

Also known as Steelkilt Charlemagne, Charlemagne, the Lakeman

A rebellious, defiant sailor in the story of the Town-Ho, who leads a mutiny against the mate Radney.

Radney

minor

Also known as the incensed Radney, Mr. Radney

The cruel, unpopular mate of the Town-Ho, whose conflict with Steelkilt leads to a fatal encounter with Moby Dick.

Captain Mayhew

minor

Also known as Mayhew

The captain of the Jeroboam, whose authority is undermined by the mad prophet Gabriel aboard his ship.

Derick De Deer

minor

Also known as Captain Derick De Deer, Derick

The captain of a German whaler, the Jungfrau, whose empty ship is outrun and out-hunted by the Pequod.

Captain Sleet

minor

Also known as the Sleet

An English whaling captain and author humorously cited in a chapter discussing the whale's spout.