Ishmael and Ahab, the Sinister Double at the Limit

Abstract

In this article, I will focus on a reading of Moby Dick based on the identification between the two key figures of the work: Ahab, the captain who tries to transgress the limits of the human, according to the terminology of the philosophy of Trias, and a narrator, Ishmael, who seems to know every thought of the Pequod's crew and whose entry into the narrative already raises a doubt as to his identity. To do this, I will use Eugenio Trias' philosophy of the limit as methodology.