Do we like them?

Do we like Captain Ahab?

A character from Moby-Dick (1851)

Our score: 2 out of 10. No. He's magnetic and tragic, but he drags a whole crew into his private revenge and ignores every plea to turn back. Admire the speeches, but don't sign on.

Ahab captains the Pequod, a Nantucket whaling ship. Ishmael, the narrator, signs on for a voyage that looks like ordinary whale-hunting for oil. Ahab stays out of sight at first, and when he appears he is a stern, scarred figure with an ivory leg, carrying a lot of pride and a lot of private pain.

His grudge is the story's engine. A huge white whale, Moby Dick, took his leg on an earlier voyage, and Ahab has never recovered. He sees the whale as more than an animal, as a symbol of malice and of everything that defies him. That makes him a compelling, almost mythic figure, and also a dangerous one to follow.

We score him low because of how he treats the people who depend on him. He rallies the crew with a gold coin and powerful oratory, binds them to his quest, and brushes off his first mate Starbuck's pleas to be sensible. The book gives him real depth and sympathy, but his obsession costs others far more than it costs him.

In the end, the hunt consumes the Pequod. Nearly everyone aboard is lost, and Ahab himself dies tangled in his own harpoon line. Ishmael alone survives to tell the tale.