ABSTRACT
In addition to being a moral myth, the fable of Moby Dick is also a sort of oceanic zoological and whaling treatise, and a poem of action and of peril. The coherence of the book celebrates itself precisely in this tension which the fugitive shade of the mystical Moby Dick induces in his pursuers. Moby Dick represents a pure antagonism, and therefore Ahab and his Enemy form a paradoxical pair of inseparables. After so many disquisitions, so many treatises and so much passion, annihilation before the sacred mystery of Evil remains the only form of communion possible. Now this success is understandable only if you keep in mind the meaning of Ahab's myth. He pursues Moby Dick through a desire for vengeance, clearly, but, as happens in every infatuation of hatred, the longing for destruction appears almost a longing for possession, for knowledge, and, in its expression, in its outlet, is not always distinguishable from it.
