Moby-Dick Chapter 79 Summary

Summary

Ishmael takes up an extended meditation on the physiognomy of the Sperm Whale, likening the task of reading its features to the work of famous physiognomists and phrenologists such as Lavater, Gall, and Spurzheim. He concedes his own limited qualifications but resolves to attempt the unusual enterprise of describing the whale’s face. He emphasizes the whale’s anomaly: it lacks a visible nose, which in other creatures and in human portraiture acts as the central feature that shapes expression.

Ishmael contrasts how a missing nose would disgrace a sculpted Jove yet in the whale’s colossal proportions becomes an added grandeur. He dwells on the whale’s brow as the most imposing feature—the “full front” view where the forehead appears like a vast, pleated firmament that suggests deity and doom. In profile the brow still impresses, with a central semi-crescentic depression that Lavater associates with genius; Ishmael playfully attributes a kind of silent genius to the whale. He notes the whale’s tiny or absent tongue and imagines ancient peoples deifying such a silent, immense being. The chapter closes with Ishmael admitting the limits of physiognomy and inviting readers to contemplate the whale’s brow and attempt to read its inscrutable meaning.

Key events

1. Ishmael announces he will try to apply physiognomy and phrenology to the Sperm Whale
2. He argues the whale’s lack of a nose fundamentally alters its ‘face’
3. He praises the whale’s vast brow as the most sublime feature, likening it to deity
4. Notes the forehead’s profile depression and wryly calls it a mark of genius
5. Mentions the whale’s tiny or absent tongue and the potential for deification
6. Concludes by questioning physiognomy’s limits and inviting readers to read the whale’s brow

Analysis

This chapter functions less as plot advancement and more as tonal and thematic deepening: Ishmael’s long, rhetorical meditation underscores Melville’s recurring interests in perception, interpretation, and the limits of human systems of knowledge. By applying (and then subtly undermining) physiognomy and phrenology—sciences claiming to read character from physical form—Ishmael exposes how such frameworks both illuminate and fool. The repeated comparisons (classical sculpture, animals, emperors’ seals) cast the whale’s brow as a monumental symbol, suggesting a presence that dwarfs human categories and hints at natural sublime and inscrutability. The absence of distinct facial features—no nose, tiny tongue, no protruding mouth—becomes symbolic: silence, unknowability, and an almost sacred otherness.

Narratively, the chapter prolongs Ishmael’s role as philosophical observer rather than participant; his self-aware humility (“I try all things; I achieve what I can”) reinforces the novel’s epistemological theme that humans must continually attempt to read the world while accepting persistent opacity. The chiasm between learned authorities (Lavater, Gall, Champollion) and Ishmael’s popular, imaginative approach stages a tension between scientific confidence and literary speculation. Foreshadowing is suggestive rather than explicit: the frequent linkage of the brow with doom and the imagery of pleats and riddles primes readers to regard the whale as an awe-inspiring, potentially ominous force.

Important quotes

“I try all things; I achieve what I can.”

IshmaelIshmael acknowledges his limited qualifications but resolves to attempt applying physiognomy to the whale.

“Physiognomically regarded, the Sperm Whale is an anomalous creature.”

NarratorA concise statement introducing the chapter’s examination of how the whale’s physical lack of a nose affects its perceived expression.

“For you see no one point precisely; not one distinct feature is revealed; no nose, eyes, ears, or mouth; no face; he has none, proper; nothing but that one broad firmament of a forehead, pleated with riddles; dumbly lowering with the doom of boats, and ships, and men.”

NarratorA vivid description of the whale’s front view that turns the forehead into a symbol of inscrutable, deity-like power.

Characters in Chapter 79

• Ishmael
• Sperm Whale
• Lavater
• Gall
• Spurzheim
• Champollion
• Sir William Jones