In my opinion, the mystery of the painting stems from the mystery of the tavern, and really the whaling voyage itself. It’s crude, dirty, and it’s not easily understood. Part of his interest in it is probably that it represents what very well could be his fate, but it provides a portal into this world that he knows so little about.
Much like his own life, Ismael is searching for clarity through his uncertainty. He is in a transitional period of his life having left his land life for sea and in such times clarity is a rare commodity. Also, in both life and painting, the image of the majestic whale comes forth through the cloud of disorder.
The metaphor of various paintings functions in a number of ways; there is the murky painting at the beginning, hinting of chaos and conflict–and yet later, there is much musing on the inability to depict or ‘paint’ the whale. It seems impossible to fully ‘know’ the whale, and so, just as Ishmael tries to write the whale, others come up with their own imperfect efforts…close, but not quite there!
In my opinion, the mystery of the painting stems from the mystery of the tavern, and really the whaling voyage itself. It’s crude, dirty, and it’s not easily understood. Part of his interest in it is probably that it represents what very well could be his fate, but it provides a portal into this world that he knows so little about.
Much like his own life, Ismael is searching for clarity through his uncertainty. He is in a transitional period of his life having left his land life for sea and in such times clarity is a rare commodity. Also, in both life and painting, the image of the majestic whale comes forth through the cloud of disorder.
The metaphor of various paintings functions in a number of ways; there is the murky painting at the beginning, hinting of chaos and conflict–and yet later, there is much musing on the inability to depict or ‘paint’ the whale. It seems impossible to fully ‘know’ the whale, and so, just as Ishmael tries to write the whale, others come up with their own imperfect efforts…close, but not quite there!