从生态批评视角分析《白鲸》中亚哈悲剧命运

从生态批评视角分析《白鲸》中亚哈的悲剧命运 Acknowledgement I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Ms. Tao and Ms. Wu. I am deeply grateful not only for her profound literary knowledge which triggered my interests in eco-criticism, but also for her patient guidance and insightful advice throughout the process of my writing. Without her generous help, detailed and responsible instruction, I can by no means bring forward this thesis by myself. Throughout my studies, I have to deliver my thanks to my classmates and friends for their generous help and invaluable support during these four years. Last but not least, I have to thanks myself, because during this time, I pay much attention to my thesis. Abstract In recent years, more and more experts and scholars began to different angles to interpret and explain the research of Melville and his works. The research on Moby Dick has been carried out from the aspects of narrative art, mythological archetypes and symbolic meanings. However, there is still for research on the ecology of man and nature presented in Moby Dick, especially from the perspective of eco-criticism to analyze the tragic fate of Ahab and its causes. With the reading of the works and a great deal of information about eco-criticism and ecology ethics, and Based on the concept of the wilderness in eco-criticism, this article tries to analyze Moby Dick by using the new idea of ecological ethics to reveal the ecology that Melville embodied in this work so as to provide readers with a new perspective to understand the significance of the works in the context of the increasingly serious ecological crisis. This paper consists of four parts. The first part is a brief introduction to Herman Melville and his work Moby Dick, and the main purpose of writing this thesis. The second part is literature review of the domestic and international studies and critical comments on Moby Dick. The third part briefly describes wilderness in light of eco-criticism. Taking the ecological critical theory as the theoretical fulcrum, this paper discusses its embodiment of wildness respectively from the point of sea and white whale. At the same time this paper analyze the novel from different angles of the fate of the tragedy of Aha, the enlightenment of human and natural harmony and our attitude towards nature. The fourth part is conclusion; this thesis considers that human beings can only avoid the tragedy by respecting nature and keeping man and nature in harmony. Key Words: Moby Dick; Ahab; Eco-criticism; Wilderness；
Tragic fate; Human and Nature 摘 要 近年来,越来越多的专家学者开始从不同角度对麦尔维尔及其作品的文章其进行各种解读和阐释。从叙事艺术、神话原型以及象征意义等方面进行分析。然而，当前学界对《白鲸》中所呈现的人与自然和谐的生态思想的研究还可以继续推进，特别是从生态批评视角来分析小说中亚哈的悲剧命运及其原因方面，还有很大的阐释空间。

通过细读作品文本和大量有关生态批评的资料，基于生态批评中“荒野”概念，本文试图运用生态批评学这一新兴理念对《白鲸》进行深层次的分析，以揭示麦尔维尔在该作品中体现的生态思想，从而为读者解读该作品提供一个新的视角，从而更深刻地理解该作品在当下生态危机日益严重的背景下的重要启示意义。

本论文包含四个部分。第一部分简要介绍赫尔曼·麦尔维及其作品《白鲸》,以及本论文的主要研究目的。第二部分主要对《白鲸》的国内外文献综述进行总结和梳理以及批评评论。第三部分简要叙述诠释了生态批评主义视角下对荒野的界定和理解, 并以其作为本文的理论支点，从而以生态批评理论为基础，探讨《白鲸》中的荒野，分别从海洋和白鲸的角度论述其体现的荒野意象。同时，从不同角度分析亚哈悲剧命运的根源、人与自然和谐相处的启示，以及我们对待大自然的态度。第四部分为结论部分，本文认为只有尊重自然，保持人与自然的和谐相处才能避免一切悲剧的产生。

关键词:《白鲸》；
亚哈-；
生态批评；
荒野；
悲剧命运；
人与自然 Contents Statement of Authorship I Acknowledgments II Abstract III 摘要 IV 1. Introduction 1 1.1 A Brief Introduction to Herman Melville 1 1.2 A Brief Introduction to Moby Dick 2 1.3 The Purpose of the Thesis 3 2. Literature Review 4 2.1 Domestic Studies 4 2.2 International Studies 5 2.3 Critical Comments 6 3.Three Interpretation of Ahab’s Tragic Fate from the Perspective of Eco-criticism 3.1 A Brief Account of Ecocriticism 7 3.2 Wilderness in Light of Moby Dick 8 3.2.1 Wilderness Embodied in sea 9 3.2.2 Wilderness Embodied in The White Whale 10 3.3 Analysis of Ahab’s Tragic Fate Based on Eco-criticism 11 3.3.1 The Fate of A lonely Protester 11 3.3.2The Tragedy of Profession 12 3.3.3The Symbolic Meaning of Ahab’s Revenge 13 3.4 Enlightenment of Ahab’s Tragic Fate 14 3.4.1 Harmonious Coexistence of Human and Nature 14 3.4.2 The Significance of Ecological Balance 15 4. Conclusion 16 References 18 1. Introduction 1.1 A Brief Introduction to Herman Melville Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet. He was one of the great American writers and a major figure in the world literature, and he was also known as the “American Shakespeare”. Melville has been regarded throughout most of the twentieth century as one of American’s most powerful literary artists, particularly for his masterpiece Moby Dick, dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne.”I have written a wicked book and feel as spotless as the lamb,” Melville wrote to Hawthorne. (Hawthorne, Nathaniel ,1951)After he died, his work was only recognized as a masterpiece 30 years. Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. He was a descendent of English Dutch colonial families. Once, his father was a successful dry-goods. When he was five years old, he began his education career and then he read many books. At the age of 12, his father died because of bankruptcy. His family circumstances were worse, so he had dropped out of his school life and experienced a hard time. He worked as a store clerk, a bank messenger and a teacher. In 1845, he became a seaman on whaling ship. In the next 4 years, he went to many places in the world with the whaling ship, so this experience helped him broadens his horizons. He was very imprisoned because he worked for riot and other reasons. Later, he joined the American warship “American”, when he landed in Boston; he ended his own life at sea. These experiences were a precious treasure for his writing. In 1845, he left the army and returned to American, so he began his own writing life. The first novel Typee is based on his South Pacific’s life. Because his professional fortunes waned, he had many difficulties at home; he died of illness in 1891. He was almost completely forgotten. In 1919, the unfinished manuscript for his novella Billy Budd was discovered by his first biographer. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of American. Herman Melville was a controversial writer at that age; some critics regarded him as an elegist, a fatalist and even an anti-humanist writer. But now more and more people began to pay much attention to his works, especially Moby Dick. And this story reveals a sad vision of the author’s embarrassment with “the universal problem of reconciling ourselves to our aloneness and our mortality”.(Harry Levin,1980:285) 1.2 A Brief Introduction to Moby Dick Moby Dick is a novel by Herman Melville. It is a rich, deep and forceful novel. The novel is regarded as an encyclopedia of everything: history, philosophy, religion, etc, in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry. Some critics even point out that “to get to know the 19th century American mind and America itself, one has to read this book.”(Chang Yaoxin, 1990:113) It describes the dread fight between Pequot Captain Ahab, who engaged in the whaling industry for 40 years, and a huge , ferocious whale---Moby Dick in the first hall of 19th century, the vigorous era of whaling industry of America, reflecting the author’s doubts and fears towards the great development of capitalism. The book tells a story between the captain of Ahab and a white whale named Moby Dick from the South Pacific. When he was young, he was bitten off a leg by the white whale in whaling ship. Then he was borne a grudge, and set foot on the road of revenge. He commanded the ship travel across all over the world, so he found the big white whale and began his hunting trip. Unfortunately his fighting is a failure, although he had stabbed this white whale, it was very tenacious and cunning chewed the boat and sank the whale ship. When the white whale dragged the whaler to escape, the rope twined Ahab, he was hanged and the whole his crew on the boat drowned. Only a sailor fled through the coffin of the reform of the life-saving. 1.3 The purpose of the thesis From the perspective of eco-criticism, the author analyzes the tragic fate of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick and the root cause of the tragic fate by analyzing the character of the Ahab character. Therefore, first, we must establish the concept of nature. We humans should ealize that human and nature are interdependent and interrelated as a whole, grasp the law as a whole, which are regarded as a basis for understanding of nature and transformation of nature, the establishment of a comprehensive and harmonious coexistence between man and nature and harmonious development. Second, we must get out of the “anthropocentrism” of the errors, and we must learn to respect the laws of nature and play a combination of subjective initiative, destruction of ecological balance, we must be punished by the laws of nature, in the evaluation of all economic activities and social activities, we not only need to consider the immediate value, but also need to consider long-term values. Finally, In order to protect nature, the capacity of modern society to protect nature is gradually enhanced, including environmental monitoring capacity, ecological balance maintenance and repair capacity, biodiversity and the protection of the original ecology of key areas, clean production capacity, pollution prevention and control capacity. This is a new material force which must be produced after the development of the productive forces to a certain level. It is the expansion, perfection and enhancement of the function of the productive forces of modern society. But this is not enough; humans need to work harder to achieve harmony between man and nature. 2. Literature Review 2.1 Domestic Studies Over the years, the domestic study of Moby Dick has achieved some results. Although the research initiated later than the West, there is a trend of spring bamboo shoots. Up to the writing time of this paper, there are 456 articles of Moby Dick onCNKI (China National knowledge Infrastructure). In 1957, Shanghai Translation Publishing Company published Cao Yong’s Moby Dick, which brought Herman Melville’s works to China for the first time, and so the study of Moby Dick began at home. Chinese scholars use various forms to research the famous work-Moby Dick. In the discussion of the cause of Ahab’s tragic fate, the domestic researchers mainly elaborated from the following aspects: Christian original sin, the objectivity of things and Ahab’s individualism. From the aspect of the original sin of Christianity, Jia Ting pointed out:”The tragic fate of the Captain of Ahab in Moby Dick was the disobedience of Jonah, he disregarded God’s various hints of the nature and the warning of his crew. Step by step, he was caught in a desperate desire to dominate the fate of desecration of God and arrogance of the self-deification. Christianity thank the absolute authority of the defiance opened the curtain of human suffering (Jia Ting, 2010:79-80).” From the aspect of objectivity, scholars mainly elaborated the tragic fate of Ahab from the aspect of the struggle between human and nature. The existence of all things has its objective laws, which does not transfer of human wills. Liu Fang pointed out “the white whale have giant power, immortal mysterious power, it is a symbol of nature. The fight between Ahab and nature also can be considered a struggle of human and nature. This is an eternal law of human and nature. Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick and his conquest of nature’s ambition destined to his destruction (Liu Fang, 2011:73).” In the aspect of Ahab’s individualism, it mainly manifested in the desires and power of Ahab. In the tragedy of the theory of the Moby Dick, Bai Xihan pointed out“ in the process of revenge, the captain of Ahab knows the great dangers he must faces, but he doesn’t want to died at the beginning, or he didn’t think of death. He thought only to eliminate this evil representative, that is the White Whale-Moby Dick, his blind revenge full of desires led to the final tragic fate (Bai Xihan, 2000:14-17). As Bai Fengxin pointed out: “In the incarnation of justice and evil, the duality of the character of captain of Ahab in Moby Dick mentioned ‘Peugeot’ can be said to be a small Kingdom.” The authoritarian rule of Ahab made him the ruthless monarch of the Kingdom. Here, Ahab is a symbol of authority and hierarchy. No one can disobey his willing, and all his crew must unconditionally obey his rule and exploitation. 2.2 International Study The research of Moby Dick abroad is more systematic and comprehensive. The study of Moby Dick includes many aspects, such as the author’s life, religion, society, politics, ecology, narration, culture and postcolonial research. According to the period, the research can be divided into the following three stages. The first stage is in 1920s-1930s, and the research mainly confined to Melville’s life studies, such as Lewis Mumford＇s Herman Melville. (New York: Literary Guid of America, 1929.), John Freeman＇s Herman Melville. (London: Macmillan Co, 1926.) The second stage is in 1940s-1990s, when the climax of the research on Melville appeared. A lot of study of Melville＇s works published in this period.Such as W.E. Sedgwick’s Herman Melville:The Tragedy of Mind. (Herman Melville: The Tragedy of Mind. Boston: Harvard University Press，1944.) The third stage is the early 21th century, when the research comes into the systematic stage, cultural study was commissioned in full swing, post-colonial interpretation work is the main achievements. Such as Shawn Thomson’s monograph The Romantic Architecture of Herman Melville＇s Moby-Dick.(Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2001.) 2.3 Critical Comments Through the survey of the above researchers, we can find that the research perspectives of domestic and foreign scholars on Melville＇s Moby Dick focus on Ahab＇s tragic fate of is single, lack of macro-system, and in-depth study, so we cannot truly analyze it. Based on eco-criticism, this paper carries out a research on the souls in wildness to analyzes the tragic fate of Ahab. Eco-criticism theory and practice in foreign countries has 30 years of development, and its development is more mature, and this theory has reached the domestic academic world. Lately, and its understanding and acceptance are still to be biochemical. The captain of Ahab is an influential figure, and when we put it in eco-criticism. such a new, open and diverse theoretical background to be examined, not only contribute to multi-dimensional, three-dimensional mining , and deep analysis, but also helps understand the text more in-depth, and comprehensively, and to a certain extent, enrich the eco- criticism theory. 3.Interpretation of Ahab’s Tragic Fate from the Perspective of Eco-criticism 3.1 A brief Account of Eco-criticism With the fast development of modern industrial society, human’s life changed a lot. But at the same time, the human beings pay much attention to material interest rather than the environment consideration; therefore, eco-criticism came into being. Eco-criticism is one of the most recent interdisciplinary fields that have emerged in literary and cultural studies; it mainly emphasizes the linkage between human beings and non-human beings. It also is a new branch in literary and cultural studies. It studies the relationship between the natural world and the literary essay. Eco-criticism aims at setting a new ecological society for sustainable development. The core idea of eco-criticism is harmony. Harmony is the most fundamental implications in eco-culture and eco-literature, it advocates and searches for the harmony between human and nature. Cheryll Glotfelty, the first professor of literature and environment at the University of Nevada, and also one of the main American advocates of eco-criticism. He thinks eco-criticism has three characteristics: First, the focus of eco-criticism is the relationship between physical environment and literature or even culture; Secondly, eco-criticism mainly studies text with earth-centered method; Thirdly, Scientific ecology and eco-criticism are inseparable, but eco-criticism doesn＇t mechanically borrow approaches, research strategies and data results from ecology. Eco-criticism’s content is very abundant, and wilderness is a part of it. What is the wilderness? The wilderness of the original meaning is nature and wildness. It is the original nature that human beings have never been to. “Wilderness“ is a natural word in literature, and the understanding of the wilderness is the essence of American natural literature. The wilderness is not only the nature of the entity, but also the natural state of mind, or the natural state of mind. Greg Garrard has made a definition of the wilderness: The idea of wilderness, signifying nature in a state uncontaminated by civilization, is the most potent construction of nature available to New World environmentalism. It is a construction mobilized to protect particular habitats and species, and is seen as a place for the reirivigoration of those tired of the moral and material pollution of the city. (59) From the above analysis, we can know wilderness is a very important concept in the study of western literature and ecology, which is a place that never has been polluted by civilization, potent construction of nature and New World environment. 3.2 Wilderness in Light of Moby Dick Moby Dick is full of many beautiful descriptions of the sea and whale, which are the symbol of nature. Based on eco-criticism, we know the wilderness is original nature. It is a natural world in literature, the understanding of the wilderness is the essence of American natural literature. And the wilderness is not only the nature of the entity, but also the nature state of mind. In the novel of Moby Dick, Herman Melville describes the ocean and the white whale is the embodiment of the incarnation and spirit of the wilderness. And it a special influence on the main character-the Captain of Ahab. The sea and the whale are completely beyond the simple meaning, and they have the vitality of life and spiritual glory. 3.2.1Wilderness Embodied in Sea In many Western literary works, the ocean has special a symbolic meaning. We commonly think it is an unpolluted human civilized world, and human’s spiritual desire is to go to the sea. In modern industrial civilization, this desire is very obvious. To eliminate the pursuit of spiritual life, people were forced to become “redundant copies.” Therefore people can lose their spiritual life; finally they become a mere flesh. The sea is nature which we can regard as wilderness. Also, the sea is the world’s largest cemetery. Sometimes, the boundless sea shows idyllic quietness, its solemnness brings people unlimited reveries and wonderful. Sometimes, the weather is very rough, the surging waves make people feel sleep. Whether the weather is cool and sunny, its moody nature has some feature of the human. And in the story of Moby Dick, we think most of the whaling fleet is frantically hunting whales, they destroyed the nature and break the calmness of the sea. Eventually, the sea not only buried a seaman and vessels, but also engulfed the souls of many people. In Moby Dick, because the ocean is the largest wilderness, it also brings people a lot of true senses of the unknown and fear. In nineteenth century, the technological development has just begun. In the era of sailing, sea life activities hasn’t have various available tools, ships sailing on the sea depends on natural wind. In many places, this story describes the human and grisly world; it brings many fears and anxieties for people. These fears and anxieties just a surface, more secrets are hiding in creatures. When the Captain of Ahab sailing on the sea. All sailors know ship sailing in the waves is like sailing on the battlefield, and in this battle, no one can tell you how many spirits are buried in this battlefield : “There is, one knows not what sweet mystery, about this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath.” [5] (p589) For many years, many people buried down to the ocean. This ocean is their tomb. This water cemetery buried countless dead ghost, and these trouble ghosts often made the sea roaring continuously. We found ourselves launched into this tormented sea, that is “where guilty beings transformed into those fowls and these fish, seemed condemned to swim on everlastingly without any haven in store……[6] .”(p282) In the novel of Moby Dick, wilderness appeared in the ocean, it representative horror, suspense, magic and mystery. Herman Melville has spoken highly of the sea. The vast endless ocean likes a big cup of wine and the raging waves is the wine, under the shining sunset, the sea showed the color of the divine. When we facing this colorful Bowl. Ishmael has a deep though: “Sunset goes down my soul mounts up!” [1] (p200) The sea symbolizes the mysterious power of nature. The boundless ocean has irresistible mysterious force. Finally, from the tragedy of Ahab, it symbolizes the human and other species must have a harmonious relationship. This is the only way human to survive. 3.2.2 Wilderness embodied in the white whale As we all know, the white whale is an animal. Its color is the important element of the terrible wilderness. The white whale is free to live in the ocean, and has no distraction with human, not to mention destroy. But the representative of Ahab thinks it is human’s enemy. He tries all his best to conquer it, but finally it brings a big tragedy for him. Therefore, it is human victims of symbolizes the mysteries of the universe and universe is like white, this s a big white, and nothing can be seen. The whale’s white also symbolizes purity and innocence and destiny, and the results will perish. The white whale is the symbol of nature, we can regard it as part of the wilderness for it has elusive strength. From its appearance, the whale is “a legendary white sperm whale with mandibular deformities that like a sickle, it has a peculiar snow-white wrinkled forehead, and a high, paramedical white hump.” [4] (p217) In addition to its singular form: “at intervals only, the unaccompanied, secluded white whale had haunted those uncivilized seas, mostly frequented by the sperm whale fishermen.” [15] (p213) in this story, before the whale appeared, the writer pays much attention to its magic legend, which cast a large of mystery. They proclaim: “Moby Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal; that though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks, he would still swim away unharmed.” [16] (p217) and Ishmael think it has a divine aura: “……his vat, mild head overhung by a canopy of vapor……and that vapor glorified by a rainbow, as if Heaven itself had put its seal upon his thoughts.” [17] (p416) Therefore, people often think the whale has a magic and invincible strength. In the heart of Ahab, the white whale has become another symbol: “the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me, if he can be saved or recovered, he must reach outside except by thrusting through the wall?” [19] (p196) Maybe Melville also made a suggestion to us; everyone is the prisoner of their own soul. Melville successfully uses the symbolic art to warn us: blind and relentless conquest will bring a big tragedy. In the novel of Moby Dick , the struggle of Ahab and the whale can be considered a struggle of Ahab and nature. However, Human cannot override above nature and destroy the harmonious relationship between human and nature. 3.3 Analysis of Ahab’s Tragic Fate Based on Eco-criticism 3.3.1The Fate of A Lonely Protester From the perspective of ecological criticism, the fate of the tragedy of Ahab is because he advocates the individual Ahab’s conquest, and forgets the harmonious interrelationship between human and nature as a starting point. So he will eventually be a lonely fate of the protesters, his life can’t escape last tragedy. Although Ahab is the captain of Pequot, ruling the whole ship, his spirit is lonely, he took the initiative to accept loneliness, because only loneliness can make his thinking more profound, and let him have the sacred sense of rule. It is believed that Ahab is a crazy man and a person who is affected by paranoia. There is no doubt that he has been eager to kill Moby Dick. But he is a clear madman. He became crazy because he thought his dignity was insulted. So he must defend the human dignity, but in a crazy way. That is to do everything to kill Moby Dick. “A man can be destroyed. But he cannot be defeated“.[19] (p68) In the eyes of Ahab, he can lose his life, but he cannot lose his dignity. “ A gentleman prefers death to humiliation.“ A brave hero do not be afraid of God, we should try our best to struggle with this world. Ahab wants to choose a heroic death that is to struggle with the White Whale. “Ahab died in a suicide attack with Moby Dick in the end. As Schopenhauer once said, “Then in the tragedies, we can see that all the greatest men have given up the ultimate goal which they are eager to pursuit for quite a long time , and they are always reject to enjoying life, or they are happy to give up their lives at ease after a long period of conflict and suffering. “ [21](p348) 3.3.2 The tragedy of Profession In the United States in Nineteenth Century,, whaling industry is very dangerous. At that time, the essential oil is very important oil, and the market demanding for the early American whaling industry has laid a good external environment, so many people working on the industry. But in most cases, only those who are poor and desperate will choose this occupation. Because the profession is so dangerous and they will died in any time. In a way, they have given up their lives, and they have given their souls to the sea. From the perspective of ecological criticism, the white whale is a species in nature, human beings should learn to live in harmony with nature and respect for nature. But because the material and technical conditions at that time is not very advanced, so the whaling can only rely on human physical strength, Ahab is helpless of his life, so he chose this career, he relied on his personal experience began his whaling trip. “So many are the unrecorded accidents in the fishery” [15] (p50) We can know the environment is very dangerous, every year thousands of whalers died in the sea, and finally left their families alone alive. “Death is easily to happen in the business of whaling-a speechlessly quick chaotic bounding of a man into Eternity” [16] (p51) Although Ahab is the captain of Pequot, there are enough sailors and crew members, their lives are fragile, and every day their common goal is to catch a great whale and then get whale oil, finally get part of the profits. Obviously, they risk their life to fight with the white whale , which is also caused by the captain of the captain Ahab lost a leg in the tragedy of life. There was no doubt that he had struggled with the god of fate every time for about a 40-years. In the struggle, every time the sailors and crew have a common ground, that is the tragedy of occupation. In order to get a lot of money, they will not respect and treat every species on earth, and of course the last will be punished by nature. Because the universe is an unknown surface for mankind, the vast nature also has its own laws, so Aha eventually has to pay a heavy price. 3.3.3 The Symbolic Meaning of Ahab’s Revenge As we all know, the story of revenge in Western literature has a long tradition. However, Melville＇s Moby Dick has shown complexity; it is not only a story of the sea, but also a prophecy of modern society. Revenge is one of Moby Dick＇s most important themes. At sea, Ahab had an inviolable dignity of the emperor, and he was also the conqueror of the sea. However, in a hunting trip, the whale took one of his legs; the disaster caused his desire for revenge. He vowed at all costs to find Moby Dick, Moby Dick, so revenge is almost the only goal in his life. Driven by this desire, he boards Pequot and made this decision, leading to other results. He could abandon whaling and return to the land to enjoy life with his family. From this point of view, this option is his own will, which is just because of his personal character, and his revenge is subjective. The captain of Ahab had a well-planned vengeance in the course of the voyage. He only spent three hours a day on a bed. The other times, he was thinking, observing, calculating and planning, which shows Ahab’s determination and wisdom for this action. In the initial stage of this hunting trip, he did not show up his ability, but at most important moments, in order to hunt the whale, he got mad. This kind of behavior shows his strong desire. Ahab has worked on whale fishery for over 40 years; he defeated himself again and again, becoming the overlord of the sea. This victory brought more pleasure to him. In the beginning, Ahab’s revenge is subjective. When Ahab decided to revenge, his willing is very firm. From his perspective, he already becomes the embodiment of justice, conscience and truth. If we trace back to the root of revenge, human make mistakes first. From this point of view, human doesn’t have the right to revenge. It is because of human’s hunting for whale, so the captain of Ahab loses one of his legs. Human beings have a long history of whaling, the scale is becoming larger and larger, in order to make money, more and more people are going to do this job, many innocent whale died, they don’t have enough space to live, so human beings have no right to revenge. In the chapter54 (“The Town-Ho’s Story) described the revenge between human and human. The chief officer and a sailor on the ship decide to revenge each other, just because some trifles. The chief officer does harm to the sailor by authority and the sailor doesn’t harm the chief officer, he let the whale ship sink. At the most important moments of chasing Moby Dick, they can’t work well together, because of the hatred in their heart. From the above analysis, we can see every revenge can lead to tragedy. From the perspective of eco-criticism, we could draw the conclusion that we should learn to respect nature; there are no reasons for human beings to revenge. 3.4 Enlightenment of Ahab’s Tragic Fate 3.4.1 Harmonious Coexistence of Human and Nature Since ancient times, in order to be able to live better life, mankind has to rely on nature to give them materials to survive with. But mankind never knew to be satisfied, they wanted to conquer nature and get everything from nature. The results also proved that they would be punished, such as in Moby Dick, the captain of Ahab was bittedon the leg by the whale. But he continues to revenge, finally, he died on the sea. From the perspective of eco-criticism, the root of his tragic fate is because his attitude towards nature, we should learn to respect the nature. Therefore, we must establish the concept of nature. In the modern sense of nature, the real view of human and nature are interdependent and interrelated as a whole, grasping the law as a whole, and as a basis for understanding nature and transforming nature. Secondly, we must get rid of the misunderstanding of “human center” and establish a harmonious relationship between human and nature. As we all know, human beings are only a part of nature, not the scale of all things. At the same time, because of the limitations of subjective and objective conditions, human understanding has great limitations. We often say that the earth is our homeland and human society comes from nature. Therefore, I think our society is a part of nature. People should live harmoniously with nature. All the materials we need to live with come from nature, but we should also repay the nature, rather than blindly solicit. For example, we should plant more trees and take actions to protect the environment. In addition, we have to control population. Due to excessive population growth, human beings require much more natural resources than before, which lead to excessive pressure on nature. In order to long-term development, the population growth must be controlled. We all come from nature which is our homeland, so we must try our best to protect it. 3.4.2 The significance of Ecological Balance It is generally believed that people and nature should be in a same family, and they are a integration that can’t be separated. Whaling was the main source of American capitalism in the nineteenth century; The whale’s oil became the indispensable lighting material for people＇s daily life, so the whale was the source of people＇s wealth. New Bedford citizens have great wealth and risk, and tend to believe that “if there are no whalers in the city, New Bedford will still be desolate“ (Wagner, 2008: 18). There are two sides to explain: on the one hand, the whaling industry is the process of the pursuit of capital, in order to obtain the high profits, whalers are more likely to put their lives at risk; On the other hand, people in the rapid development of technology, he is determined to rely on nature, especially the new industrialization gives people a weapon to find a new world to prove his strength who believe he is the ruler. And Melville gives people the chance to fulfill his dreams and take his adventures, and he lets people see that if people are too arrogant before nature, the result will be devastating. The significance of Moby Dick is that it can lead the reader toward a world in which they will doubt the strong desire of humanity and learn how Ahab＇s crazy desires drive whale Moby Dick＇s revenge on mania. Through this person the profound themes hidden between the linescan be dug out: the importance of the balance between human and nature. Some critics argue that in the creation of the epic Moby Dick, Melville shows that he sharply identifies and foresees the future of mankind. The pursuit of harmony has always been the goal of mankind Life, and living in a balanced world is a trend of social development. In addition, the expression of harmony is an ideal relationship, including truth, justice and beauty, as well as a harmonious expression of another, that is, the harmony between man and nature, which is clearly shown in Moby Dick. Part Four Conclusion From the perspective of eco-criticism, we can analyze the tragic fate of the captain of Ahab. His ideas in Moby Dick not only predict the arrival of today＇s ecological crisis, but also point out the direction in which people should take in the future. In modern society, people pay less attention to nature, our environment already destroyed. We are facing a lot of disasters. For example, acid rain, toxic gases, polluted air, fatal disease and so on. We are also facing the dilemma of getting economical profits at all costs or protecting the environment for ourselves and also for our later generations. This literary masterpiece not only narrates a story, but also a warning to mankind. We must understand that human is not the center of nature, we should learn to respect nature, rather than blindly request and conquer it. Finally, we should strive to build a harmonious relationship between human and nature. Once the ecological ethics is deeply rooted in humans mind, we can promote the living conditions not only for ourselves but also future generations. 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