There are most certainly no known facts that reveal a shameful homosexual liaison in the life of Herman Melville. However there are many accounts of Melville that reveal him to be “puzzled.” For an example when Melville was writing his novel Pierre, a story themed around incest, his son Stanwix was born. Melville unintentionally wrote his own mother’s name instead of his wife’s on the birth certificate. His marriage and relation ship with Elizabeth Shaw were sub-par. The first book Melville wrote after his marriage was called Mardi. This maritime novel is highly truth-seeking and examines the travels of two men and the countries they enter. The book exalts their friendship and associates marriage with suicide. The masses disbelieved Melville’s first two books although they were nonfiction, so he wrote a rather ironic preface stating, that by a similar pattern he “hoped the fiction book”, Mardi, would be taken as fact. Keep in mind that he himself is married. It would seem to me that Melville is either confused or knows what his 19th centaury audience likes, and I don’t thinks it’s the latter due to the lack of Melville fans in his time. When trying to asses Melville’s “confusion” one comes up with incestuous mishaps and misogyny, or the dislike of women. But these two themes do not make up the majority of Melville’s work; rather it happens to be the encouraging theme of male affection which significantly sparks the homoerotic imagination.
As we have been taught I will provide my evidence as strongest, strong, and stronger. This brings us into the “great American classic” Moby Dick. The quest captain Ahab has of getting revenge on Moby Dick has overtaken his life and eventually brings his untimely demise. Melville wants us to have something to occupy our time so that a certain goal or quest doesn’t over run our lives. There he brings in Ishmael and Queequeg’s relationship, this bond between two men is one of the things that keeps them busy while Ahab tirades....