Moby Dick

Roles

• Peleg - Adult (36-50), Senior (>50), Male

About this piece

Peleg describes Captain Ahab

Summary

The narrator of story is Ishmael, a young sailor who decides to work on a whaling ship. He decides to take a ferry to Nantucket, the whaling center of New England. He first goes to New Bedford and spends the night at the Spouter-Inn, where he has to share a room with a harpooner. He is at first scared of him, considering him a savage and a "cannibal", but they soon become good friends. They go together to Nantucket to try to find work in a whaling ship. Wandering around Nantucket, Ishmael sets his eyes on a ship called "Pequod". He strikes a deal with the ship's owners, Peleg and Bilbad. In this monologue Peleg tells Ishmael about their ship's captain, the mysterious Ahab. He tells him that he is secretive and inscrutable. Also he is now very moody because he lost his leg trying to kill a big white whale, Mody Dick. He doesn't speak much and he doesn't leave his cabin very often. He assures him, however, that he is a very skilled captain.

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