Describe Ahab's physical appearence and discuss how this adds to the impression of the character?
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Physical Appearances:
Long before Ahab's first appearance, there is an air of mystery about the captain of the Pequod. The owners hire the crew in Ahab's absence. When Ishmael inquires about the captain, he is told that Ahab is a man of few words but deep meaning; from the first, it is clear that the captain is a complicated character. He is a "grand, ungodly, god-like" man who has been in colleges as well as among the cannibals. This brief introduction reveals significant information. Ahab is ungodly in that he refuses to submit to any higher power. He does not worship or even acknowledge the superiority of forces beyond himself. Ahab is god-like in that he is larger than life. Perhaps he even wants to be God.
The mystery continues as Ahab remains in his cabin through the early days of the voyage. Ishmael grows increasingly uneasy, checking the area outside the captain's cabin whenever the narrator goes on watch. When Ahab finally appears on his quarter-deck (Chapter 28), he is an imposing, frightening figure whose haunted visage sends shivers over Ishmael. The captain looks like a man "cut away from the stake, when the fire has overrunningly wasted all the limbs without consuming them, or taking away one particle from their compacted aged robustness." A white scar, reportedly from a thunderbolt, runs down his face and, some say, the length of his body. Ahab does seem godlike, or at least mythic, from the beginning. He is surrounded by legend, cured by lightning, grim, determined. We learn early on that an equally legendary White Whale has bitten off one of the captain's legs. A prosthesis replaces it, fashioned from another sperm whale's jaw. The man is thus part whale himself, part lightning bolt; he feels a thunderous electricity within himself. If Ahab is mad, he is madness personified, a huge man, larger than life, legendary, god-like.
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