What/Who does Starbuck represent?

What/Who does Starbuck represent?

"Thou art but too good a fellow, Starbuck,' he said lowly to the mate; then raising his voice to the crew: 'Furl the t'gallant-sails, and close-reef the top-sails, fore and aft; back the main-yard; up Burtons, and break out in the main-hold.'

It were perhaps vain to surmise exactly why it was, that as respecting Starbuck, Ahab thus acted. It may have been a flash of honesty in him; or mere prudential policy which, under the circumstance, imperiously forbade the slightest symptom of open disaffection, however transient, in the important chief officer of his ship. However it was, his orders were executed; and the Burtons were hoisted" (Melville 363).

Something that intrigued me throughout Moby Dick was the dynamic between Ahab and Starbuck. While Starbuck openly expresses his disapproval of Ahab's ill-fated, hubristic quest to kill Moby Dick, he generally remains obedient to Ahab throughout the work. In light of our thoughts on Ahab playing the role of an epic or tragic hero, such as Milton's Satan, I was wondering how Starbuck might fit into the framework of such an interpretation of Moby Dick, if at all.

I read Paradise Lost during sophomore year and don't remember it well enough to identify Starbuck with any of its particular characters. However, is it possible that Starbuck may in some sense represent Ahab's conscience? In the above passage, Starbuck has obeyed Ahab's orders, but is defiant as usual, and seems to provoke an admittedly brief lapse in Ahab's normally mechanical obsession with killing Moby Dick. In fact, Ahab considers his defiant words before returning to the deck, and wonders, "What's that he said--Ahab beware of Ahab--there's something there!" (362). In any case, I think that passages such as this one may be especially helpful in identifying Starbuck's role within our interpretation of the work.