In Chapter 36 of Moby-Dick, "The Quarter-Deck," Ahab convinces (most of) his crew to join his personal quest for vengeance against the white whale Moby Dick by inciting their passions:
Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow--Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!
After this climactic moment, Ishmael as narrator provides a dramatic account of the...
In Chapter 36 of Moby-Dick, "The Quarter-Deck," Ahab convinces (most of) his crew to join his personal quest for vengeance against the white whale Moby Dick by inciting their passions:
Drink, ye harpooneers! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat's bow--Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!
After this climactic moment, Ishmael as narrator provides a dramatic account of the entire crew's behavior afterwards but neglects to tell the reader what he himself felt at that moment. However, at the beginning of Chapter 41, "Moby Dick," he begins
I, Ishmael, was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs; and stronger I shouted, and more did I hammer and clinch my oath, because of the dread of my soul. A wild, mystical, sympathetical feeling was in me; Ahab's quenchless feud seemed mine.
From this quotation, we can see that more than being merely a part of Ahab's "crew," Ishmael identifies himself and his purpose with Ahab's revenge plot. He, too, was party to the "oath" that he narrates chapters earlier to such an extent that Ahab's "feud" becomes Ishmael's own. Thus, the speech in "The Quarter-Deck" excites Ishmael to pursue Moby Dick to the death.
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