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c h a p t e r s I x hubris and heroism, Mortality and Immortality whereas a MIx of coMIc and tragic motifs informs the larger biblical themes within the middle third of Moby-Dick, the development of ahab’s excessive pride, or hubris, appears in tandem with his distinctive traits of heroic courage in the final quarter of the narrative. both Ishmael and ahab also speculate in this portion of the novel on the mysterious interrelation of life and death and on the perennial human hope for spiritual immortality—issues that acutely concern Ishmael in his quest for moral wisdom, and ahab in his quest for divine justice. biblical themes of heroism and hubris, mortality and immortality, are thus paired in the latter chapters of Moby-Dick, and although these themes have appeared before in the narrative, they assume more sustained importance as the drama moves relentlessly toward its tragic climax. varying degrees of heroism and hubris are common in the composition of tragic figures, and Melville’s ahab is no exception here. like a number of his prototypes whether biblical (Job, King ahab), classical (prometheus, oedipus), renaissance (faustus, hamlet, lear, Macbeth), or romantic (faust, Manfred, cain), ahab shows outstanding moral strength and resolution when facing adversity. but he also demonstrates the defiant pride, overweening ambition, and delusory infallibility that can contribute to the tragic protagonist’s downfall, as we see in the cases of King ahab, oedipus,Macbeth,faustus,and Manfred.The concept of hubris plays a key role in ancient greek drama and denotes a moral flaw in the tragic hero, which leads him to place himself above others and ignore the warnings of the gods, ultimately releasing the forces of nemesis that cause his downfall. I N S C R U T A B L E M A L I C E  aeschylean drama, with its adherence to the traditional pieties of ancient greek religion, is a particularly fertile territory for examples of hubris. The chorus in the Agamemnon early affirms: “‘The hand of Zeus has cast / The proud from their high place!’ / This we may say, and trace / That hand from first to last.”1 The old testament prophet Isaiah had similarly excoriated the proud and lofty who, lifted up like tall trees, mountains, towers, and walls, would be brought low on the impending day of the lord: for the day of the lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: and upon all the cedars of lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of bashan. and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. and the loftiness of man shall be bowed down,and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the lord alone shall be exalted in that day. (2:12–17) such presumptuous elevation implies an invasion of the realm of the divine, a prohibited action going back to the story of the tower of babel (gen. 11:1–9) and repeatedly found throughout the books of the old testament. If, in the old testament, there is no exact equivalent to the greek concept of hubris, we still have various terms for “pride,”all stemming from a root meaning of physical elevation leading to the sins of arrogance and assumed self-sufficiency. characteristic of this sinful pride are boastfulness and glorying in an exalted sense of power. admonitory examples of such behavior can be found in the prophets, psalms, and proverbs, the latter text offering the well-known formula “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (prov. 16:18). donald e. gowan notes of the hebrew sense of hubris: “what we would call the proud man is what the hebrews called the man whose heart,or eyes,or face,or spirit is exalted; i.e., he considers himself above others (said explicitly in deut. 17:20), to need no one (cf. Jer. 13:15 and the context of Isa. 10:12), and to be responsible to no one.” This sense of irresponsibility to others “includes even god, and it is apparent that such an attitude leads one to become insufferably arrogant toward those he considers to be beneath him; to live in disregard...

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