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Umbrella frames were made out of whalebone in Melville’s time
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You should say in the jaws of a whale–corsets were notoriously uncomfortable. They made it so difficult to breath for so many, that we invented a piece of furniture to catch all the fainting women.
A fainting couch
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Baleen was used to stiffen corsets, which were the height of fashion when Queen Anne ruled England, Ireland, and Scotland from 1702-1714.
Queen Anne in a corset
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Not technically a mathematical principle, Melville is making fun of the human tendency to misapply knowledge–there is no reason that one should be able to calculate the age of a whale in the same way one calculates the age of a tree.
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In humans, hare-lip is a derogatory term for cleft palate, a congenital disorder which is the result of abnormal facial development during gestation.
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Unfortunately, “sulk and pout” were not whaling terms. But they should have been.
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Bird’s nests are for trees, what fig leafs are to human beans. Strange since trees already have so many leaves.
Someone get these trees a bird’s nest, ammirite?
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Stoicism
Platonism
Spinoza
These are the references, but what does Melville mean with the comparison? Is this just a joke about the Right Whale’s frowny face? Is it something to do with who neo-Platonists and neo-Stoics were in Melville’s time? Or is it actually a deep point that calls upon the actual philosophical systems in question? If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments.
Plato was perplexed by the constant flux that occurred in reality. How could there be a consistent, static “truth”, when a thing is not the same as it was even a moment ago. To solve this problem, he turned to the Theory of the Forms; all objects in reality were fleeting, imperfect reflections of the eternal, perfect forms created by the demiurge. Melville says that the wrinkles in the forehead of the sperm whale seem to have faded away. This, to me, seems to be an allusion to Platonic thought; in that, we know this is the very same whale, yet, it has changed so very much, as to, now, appear to be a different one.
As for Spinoza, I, myself, do not know enough about his work and thoughts. Albeit, I would venture to speculate that he probably took seemingly indifferent posture in pondering the matter of death; as well as other mortal affairs.
2
Not sure about the Sperm Whale being a Platonian. However, I believe the Right Whale is considered a Stoic because, from what I have briefly researched, Stoics believe in not allowing their emotions to surface or become emotionally involved with whatever situation arises. Therefore, the Right Whale’s face looks resolved because during his final battle he, being a stoic, reserved his emotions (whatever emotions a whale has), allowing them to build up from within. Upon his death his face became “resolved” because he no longer had to deal with such emotion. Probably incorrect but maybe that is half of what he meant?