Ahab as Milton's Satan

Ahab as Milton's Satan

Someone already brought up Macbeth, and allusions to Faust or Don Giovanni might be revealing. But the points of connection between Ahab and Milton's Satan could be useful.

When asked if he wants to put lightning rods on the ship, Ahab barks:

"Avast!" cried Ahab; "let's have fair play here, though we be the weaker side."
--p. 382, ch. 119

On the next page, he rages in defying worship:

"Oh! thou clear spirit of clear fire, whom on these seas I as Persian once did worship, till in the sacramental act so burned by thee, that to this hour I bear the scar; I now know thee, thou clear spirit, and I now know that thy right worship is defiance. To neither love nor reverence wilt thou be kind; and e'en for hate thou canst but kill; and all are killed. No fearless fool now fronts thee. I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me. In the midst of the personified impersonal, a personality stands here. Though but a point at best; whencesoe'er I came; wheresoe'er I go; yet while I earthly live, the queenly personality lives in me, and feels her royal rights. But war is pain, and hate is woe. Come in thy lowest form of love, and I will kneel and kiss thee; but at thy highest, come as mere supernal power; and though thou launchest navies of full-freighted worlds, there's that in here that still remains indifferent. Oh, thou clear spirit, of thy fire thou madest me, and like a true child of fire, I breathe it back to thee."

Later on, Ahab refuses the company of Pip, fearing that his madness may be cured (p. 399, ch. 129). And on the second day of the chase, Ahab says of himself:

Nor white whale, nor man, nor fiend, can so much as graze old Ahab in his own proper and inaccessible being. Can any lead touch yonder floor, any mast scrape yonder roof?"--p. 417

Ahab is rooted in himself, locked in defiant worship. He questions his free will, yet refuses to be swayed by Pip or family from his end. Is Ahab as immutable as Milton's Satan or Mozart's Don Giovanni?

P.S. This has nothing to do with anything, but one of my favorite lines in the book is Ahab's response to the captain of the Bachelor, who offers to have Ahab and the crew of the Pequod come aboard their party boat. Ahab just says: "Thou art too damned jolly."