Moby-Dick · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.
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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.