The female sea in Moby Dick Melville's novel, Moby Dick, only has men. The Melville men's club sails a sea whose gender changes often and whose personality is decidedly enigmatic. The feminine in Melville's novel hides its face under a veil of stars and behind a cloud of words. Literally, Moby Dick is a men's club, with only a glimpse of a woman in the background, or reflected in the sailors' stories. They appear to have no sexuality, nor any personality. The two pureblood characters in the novel who speak dialogue are both servants. Mrs. Hussey hands out "Clam or Cod" to Queequeg and Ishmael, banishes harpoons from her house, and busies herself as a cosmic washerwoman. In the novel, she is a ridiculously comic figure, brought out for a few laughs, and then forgotten. Bildad's sister, Charity, has it much worse. While Bildad and Peleg fight and thunder in their Wigwam on the deck of the Pequod, she mans the boat, so that "nothing may be found wanting." (All Astir, p. 137). Despite all this work that she seems to do by hand, Melville states that "no woman better deserved this name", but this does not stop him from making fun of her: "And like a sister of charity this charitable Aunt Charity bustled about here and from there, ready to lend her hand and heart to all that she promised to yield for safety, comfort and consolation to all on board a ship in which her beloved brother Bildad was involved" (All Astir, 137-8) The phrase flows with repetition and alliteration, lightening the tone and making all his work seem trivial and pointless. What's the point of a pillow or a nightcap on a three-year ocean voyage? What difference does it make? If we haven't grasped the crux of the matter... half of the paper... and in the book it comes into conflict and leaves the ending in question. Following this logic, Ahab could never have killed Moby Dick just as Moby could never have killed Ahab. Like matter and antimatter, they would simply eliminate each other. In this novel, it is difficult to see Ahab surviving and the whale not. It's hard to see because the feminine side of nature is so oppressive and overwhelming. Almost everything that is greater than man is female and everything is indifferent to him. In fact, the male part of Moby Dick is probably the one who wants to hunt Ahab so badly. The rest of her power is that all-encompassing feminine power of the ocean, the sun, nature and even the soul. The men's club has no chance. In the end, Ahab must take whatever she decides to give him. Works Cited Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. Ed. H. Hayford and H. Parker. New York: Norton, 1967.