THE EFFECTS OF STARBUCK’S EXCESSIVE GREED: AN ECOCRITICAL STUDY OF MOBY-DICK

• Published in: Khulna University Studies
• Main Authors: Islam, Sheikh Shareeful, Ahsanuzzaman, Ahmed
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Khulna University 2017
• Subjects: Animal studies; anthropocentrism; ecocritical; human-nature relationship; Starbuck; Ahab; Captain Ahab; White whale
• Online Access: https://ku.ac.bd/journal/kustudies/article/view/198; https://doi.org/10.53808/KUS.2017.14.1and2.1633-A

Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, a whaling story at the surface, wrenches out from its confines the deep-seated dilemma in human–nature relationship. Like all the other characters, Starbuck, the ship’s first mate, has a loosely bound but matter–of–fact association to Moby Dick, the white whale. His attitude towards Moby Dick is one of what he holds as a general outlook towards a whale. Unlike Captain Ahab, he is not obsessed with that particular animal. He commoditizes it, and thereby takes an anthropocentric stance as he sets himself on a mission to hunt down the great beast. The questions, however, remain whether his approach towards the whale(s) is justifiable and whether the counterstrike that he, together with his shipmates, faces in the end of the novel has any connection to such an approach or not. This paper intends to address such issues from the perspective of animal studies.