Abstract

Moby Dick is an ecological novel written by the American novelist Herman Melville, which made an extraordinary investigation on the relationship between man and nature. Through the portrayal of the two main characters, the Captain Ahab and Ishmael, the story attempts to convey to the readers that human beings should live in harmony with nature, respect nature, and make proper use of nature. 

The thesis consists of three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion. The introductory part is Chapter One, which provides the background information of  Herman Melville, the author, and the connection between his life experience with the creation of the story. This chapter also makes a brief statement of the previous studies of Moby Dick both at home and abroad. Besides, the definition of ecocriticism, theories of ecocriticism applied in this research and the layout of the thesis will be explained in this section. 

The body of the thesis includes three chapters, which are analyses of the ecological thoughts contained in the story on account of Professor Lu Shuyuan’s classification of ecology: natural ecology, social ecology and spiritual ecology. Chapter Two analyzes Ishmael’s and Starbuck’s nature consciousness in the view of natural ecology. Chapter Three focuses on social ecology embodied in Moby Dick by exploring the friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg as well as the conflict between Ahab and his crew. Chapter Four probes into the spiritual ecology presented in the book. In order to find out how the imbalanced man and nature relationship will lead to the spiritual crisis in man’s deep heart, dehumanization of the Captain Ahab and indifference of the crew will be revealed in this chapter.             

The conclusion emphasizes that Moby Dick contains Herman Melville’s ecological ideas. Through describing the relationship between man and nature, man and man, man and self, his ecological thoughts reflected in Moby Dick enlighten us today. In the end, the thesis advocates man to treat nature equally.

Key words: Moby Dick, Ecocriticism, Herman Melville

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter One  Introduction-1

1.1 Melville and Moby Dick-1

1.2 Literature Review-3

1.3 Ecocriticism as a Theory-5

1.4 Layout of the Thesis-8

Chapter Two  Natural Ecology in Moby Dick-9

2.1 Starbuck’s Nature Consciousness-9

2.2 Ishmael’s Nature Consciousness-11

Chapter Three  Social Ecology in Moby Dick-13

3.1 Friendship between Ishmael and Queequeg-13

3.2 Conflict between Ahab and His Crew-15

Chapter Four  Spiritual Ecology in Moby Dick-18

4.1 Dehumanization of Captain Ahab-18

4.2 Stupefaction of the Crew-20

Chapter Five  Conclusion-23

References-25