Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, Chapter 69 - The Funeral quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. What has happened to the whale before Chapter 69 begins?

   • It has been harpooned but is still alive, thrashing alongside the Pequod in its death throes
   • Correct answer: It has been beheaded and stripped of its blubber, leaving only the peeled white carcass
   • It has been killed and the head has been kept, but the blubber has not yet been processed
   • It has escaped the crew and is being pursued across the open ocean by the Pequod

   The chapter opens with the order to release the carcass after the tackles have done their duty. The whale is described as "beheaded" with its "peeled white body" flashing like a marble sepulchre.

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2. 2

   Question 2. To what does Ishmael compare the peeled white body of the whale?

   • A massive iceberg drifting slowly through the arctic waters toward warmer currents
   • Correct answer: A marble sepulchre, gleaming white despite having lost its outer layer of blubber
   • A bleached ship hull overturned on the waves, abandoned by its fleeing crew
   • A great white cloud descended from the sky and settling upon the ocean surface

   Ishmael writes that "The peeled white body of the beheaded whale flashes like a marble sepulchre" — comparing it to a stone burial vault.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Which two types of creatures descend upon the whale's floating carcass?

   • Dolphins circling in curiosity and jellyfish drifting into the whale's open wounds
   • Correct answer: Sharks tearing at the body in the water and screaming sea fowl stabbing from above
   • Pilot fish cleaning the remains and albatrosses circling silently at a respectful distance
   • Sperm whales investigating the corpse and pelicans scooping at loose pieces of flesh

   Ishmael describes "insatiate sharks" in the water and "rapacious flights of screaming fowls" in the air, whose beaks are "like so many insulting poniards."

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4. 4

   Question 4. What does "poniards" mean in the phrase "beaks are like so many insulting poniards"?

   • Heavy hammers or mallets used for driving nails into the hulls of wooden ships
   • Correct answer: Light daggers or stabbing weapons, comparing the birds' beaks to piercing blades
   • Fishing hooks with barbed ends, suggesting the birds snag and tear at the flesh
   • Ceremonial swords carried by officers, implying the birds attack with formal precision

   A poniard is a light dagger. Ishmael compares the sea fowls' sharp, stabbing beaks to small daggers piercing the whale's body.

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5. 5

   Question 5. Why does Ishmael call the scene "a most doleful and most mocking funeral"?

   • The crew holds a somber ceremony but secretly celebrates the profit the whale will bring
   • Correct answer: The scavengers appear dressed in funeral black but are actually feasting on the corpse
   • The whale's body sinks immediately, denying it even the dignity of floating on the surface
   • Ahab delivers a mocking eulogy over the whale before ordering the carcass destroyed

   The sea-vultures are in "pious mourning" and air-sharks "punctiliously in black or speckled" as if attending a funeral, but they are really devouring the whale — a grotesque mockery of a real ceremony.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does Ishmael mean by exclaiming "Oh, horrible vulturism of earth!"?

   • That vultures are the most terrifying predators in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems
   • Correct answer: That opportunistic, predatory behavior toward the dead is universal and inescapable in nature
   • That the whale industry has made the earth itself into a place of horror and suffering
   • That the specific vultures circling the Pequod are a bad omen for the voyage ahead

   Ishmael condemns the universal phenomenon of creatures preying on the fallen, noting that "not the mightiest whale is free" from this vulturism — extending the critique beyond animals to human behavior.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What is the "vengeful ghost" that survives the whale's death?

   • The spirit of the whale that haunts Ahab in his dreams, driving his obsession further
   • Correct answer: The whale's floating white carcass, which distant ships mistake for dangerous shoals or rocks
   • The memory of the whale preserved in scrimshaw carvings made from its bones by the crew
   • A supernatural presence felt by the Pequod's crew that causes unexplained storms at sea

   When other ships spot the white mass from afar, with the spray and distance obscuring the birds, sailors mistake it for "shoals, rocks, and breakers" and mark it as a hazard in their logs.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What do frightened sailors write in their ship's logs after seeing the whale's carcass?

   • "Great white whale sighted in these waters: all ships beware of dangerous leviathan"
   • Correct answer: "Shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabout: beware!" — a false navigational warning
   • "Ghost ship spotted on the horizon: cursed waters, change course immediately"
   • "Uncharted island discovered at these coordinates: further exploration recommended"

   With "trembling fingers," the sailors set down in the log: "shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabout: beware!" — a completely false warning based on misidentifying the whale carcass.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What animal does Ishmael compare ships to when they avoid the phantom hazard?

   • Startled horses that bolt from shadows, galloping wildly away from imagined threats
   • Correct answer: Silly sheep leaping over a vacuum because their leader once leaped when a stick was held
   • Frightened deer freezing in place rather than investigating the source of an unfamiliar sound
   • Nervous cattle stampeding in a herd, each one following the panicked animal ahead of it

   Ishmael writes that ships shun the place, "leaping over it as silly sheep leap over a vacuum, because their leader originally leaped there when a stick was held" — a vivid image of blind conformity.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Which of the following does Ishmael NOT explicitly critique through the whale's ghost metaphor?

    • The law of precedents — following previous decisions without questioning their validity
    • The utility of traditions — inherited customs that no longer serve a rational purpose
    • Correct answer: The economics of whaling — the profit motive that drives men to hunt whales to extinction
    • The obstinate survival of old beliefs — superstitions persisting without factual foundation

    Ishmael explicitly names "your law of precedents," "your utility of traditions," and "the obstinate survival of old beliefs never bottomed on the earth." He does not discuss the economics of whaling in this chapter.

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11. 11

    Question 11. What does Ishmael mean when he says the whale's ghost represents beliefs "never bottomed on the earth, and now not even hovering in the air"?

    • The whale's body has fully decomposed, leaving nothing physical behind at all
    • Correct answer: These beliefs never had a factual foundation and have now lost even their superficial plausibility
    • The ghost has risen so high above the water that it can no longer be seen by passing ships
    • The traditions were originally about land animals but have been transferred to sea creatures

    Ishmael describes beliefs that were never grounded in fact ("never bottomed on the earth") and have now lost even their airborne, ghostly presence — they are completely baseless superstitions.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What is the Cock-Lane ghost that Ishmael references at the chapter's end?

    • A legendary phantom rooster said to crow at midnight on ships doomed to sink at sea
    • Correct answer: A famous fraudulent London haunting from 1762 that even Doctor Johnson investigated
    • A folk tale about a ghostly whale that appeared to New England whalers before storms
    • A fictional ghost from a popular novel that Melville's contemporary readers would recognize

    The Cock-Lane ghost was a famous alleged haunting in London in 1762. Samuel Johnson investigated it seriously before it was exposed as a hoax — Ishmael's point being that even wise men believe in ghosts.

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13. 13

    Question 13. How does the whale's power transform from life to death, according to Ishmael?

    • In life the whale was gentle and peaceful, but in death it becomes a source of violent conflict among ships
    • Correct answer: In life the whale was a real terror to its foes, but in death its ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world
    • In life the whale was hunted for profit, but in death it becomes sacred and untouchable to all sailors
    • In life the whale was invisible beneath the waves, but in death it becomes a visible monument on the surface

    Ishmael states: "while in the life the great whale's body may have been a real terror to his foes, in his death his ghost becomes a powerless panic to a world" — real danger becomes irrational fear.

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