# Moby-Dick — Character guide

> Key figures in Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

- [Ishmael](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/ishmael.md): 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 cur
- [Captain Ahab](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/captain_ahab.md): 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 
- [Queequeg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/queequeg.md): 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 th
- [Starbuck](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/starbuck.md): 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,
- [Stubb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/stubb.md): 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 swallow
- [Flask](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/flask.md): 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 t
- [Moby Dick](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/moby_dick.md): 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 b
- [Fedallah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/fedallah.md): 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 capt
- [Pip](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/pip.md): A young African American cabin boy who goes mad after being left adrift at sea during a whale chase.
- [Captain Peleg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/captain_peleg.md): A retired sea captain and part-owner of the Pequod, who interviews and hires Ishmael in Nantucket.
- [Captain Bildad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/captain_bildad.md): A devout Quaker and retired sea captain, part-owner of the Pequod who haggles over Ishmael's lay.
- [Tashtego](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/tashtego.md): A skilled Native American harpooner from Gay Head, who serves as Stubb's boat-steerer on the Pequod.
- [Daggoo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/daggoo.md): A gigantic African harpooner who serves as Flask's boat-steerer on the Pequod.
- [Elijah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/elijah.md): A mysterious, ragged prophet in Nantucket who warns Ishmael and Queequeg about sailing on the Pequod.
- [Father Mapple](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/father_mapple.md): A former harpooner turned preacher in New Bedford, who delivers a powerful sermon on Jonah and disobedience.
- [Perth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/perth.md): The blacksmith aboard the Pequod, a broken man who forges Ahab's special harpoon for hunting Moby Dick.
- [The Carpenter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/the_carpenter.md): The pragmatic, unemotional craftsman aboard the Pequod who repairs gear and fashions Ahab's ivory leg.
- [Dough-Boy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/dough_boy.md): The timid, pale steward of the Pequod who serves the mates in the cabin.
- [Fleece](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/fleece.md): The elderly, deaf cook of the Pequod whom Stubb lectures on cooking whale steak properly.
- [Yojo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/yojo.md): Queequeg's small black idol, which he consults for important decisions, including choosing a ship.
- [Mrs. Hussey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/mrs_hussey.md): The landlady of the Try Pots Inn in Nantucket, who serves Ishmael and Queequeg excellent clam and cod chowder.
- [Peter Coffin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/peter_coffin.md): The landlord of the Spouter-Inn in New Bedford, who assigns Ishmael to share a bed with Queequeg.
- [Aunt Charity](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/aunt_charity.md): Captain Bildad's kind-hearted sister, who provides small comforts for the Pequod's crew before departure.
- [Bulkington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/bulkington.md): A stoic, experienced sailor Ishmael sees at the Spouter-Inn, who signs on the Pequod shortly after a long voyage.
- [Gabriel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/gabriel.md): A deranged Shaker prophet aboard the Jeroboam who claims Moby Dick is the incarnation of the Shaker God.
- [Captain Boomer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/captain_boomer.md): The jovial, one-armed English captain of the Samuel Enderby, who lost an arm to Moby Dick but bears no grudge.
- [Dr. Bunger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/dr_bunger.md): The surgeon of the Samuel Enderby, who humorously describes extracting the iron from Captain Boomer's arm.
- [Captain Gardiner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/captain_gardiner.md): The distressed captain of the Rachel, who begs Ahab to help search for his son lost in a whaleboat chase.
- [Steelkilt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/steelkilt.md): A rebellious, defiant sailor in the story of the Town-Ho, who leads a mutiny against the mate Radney.
- [Radney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/radney.md): The cruel, unpopular mate of the Town-Ho, whose conflict with Steelkilt leads to a fatal encounter with Moby Dick.
- [Captain Mayhew](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/captain_mayhew.md): The captain of the Jeroboam, whose authority is undermined by the mad prophet Gabriel aboard his ship.
- [Derick De Deer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/derick_de_deer.md): The captain of a German whaler, the Jungfrau, whose empty ship is outrun and out-hunted by the Pequod.
- [Captain Sleet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters/captain_sleet.md): An English whaling captain and author humorously cited in a chapter discussing the whale's spout.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/moby_dick_se/characters