| Summary: | This chapter focuses on the significance of the White Whale to Ishmael, whose quest for Leviathan raises questions of cetology, cosmology, and epistemology. In Moby-Dick 's cetological chapters, part of Ishmael's mission is to attain practical and philosophical wisdom from his whaling experience which portrayed significant allusions to biblical wisdom. Ishmael's review of cetology reflects the contemporary Romantic critique of science, together with support from older metaphorical languages of myth and mysticism. Additionally, the epistemology of Ishmael's discussion of whales and whaling subsumes a broad range of literary prototypes. Ishmael's description of sperm-squeezing is a secularized act of Christian conversion replete with biblical language and imagery.
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