Good and Evil in a Morally Indifferent Universe in Moby DickThe moral ambiguity of the universe is prevalent in Melville's Moby Dick. None of the characters represent pure evil or pure goodness. Even Melville's description of Ahab, who he repeatedly calls "monomaniacal," suggesting amorality or psychosis, has the potential to be seen as a shy, sympathetic character. When Ahab's "monomaniac" destiny is contrasted with that of Ishmael, the moral ambiguity deepens, leaving the reader with a complete lack of principled clarity. The final moments of Moby Dick bring the novel to a concise and sudden climax. The mutual destruction of the Pequod and the White Whale, followed by Ishmael's epilogue, takes up about half a dozen pages. Despite Melville's earlier tendency to methodically detail every aspect of whaling life, in the climax he takes a concise, almost journalistic approach. Note that in these few pages he makes little attempt to assign value judgments to the events that unfold. Stylistically, his narration is reduced to blunt, concrete sentences that use a greater number of semicolons. By ending the book so abruptly, Melville makes a virtually negligible attempt at an epilogue, leaving it up to the reader what value judgments exist. Ultimately, it is the dichotomy between Ishmaeland Ahab's respective fortunes that remains with the reader. Therein lies greater moral ambiguity than previously suggested. Although Ishmael is the sole survivor of the Pequod, it is notable that, in his own way, Ahab fulfills his desire for revenge by ensuring the destruction of the White Whale along with his own demise. Despite the apparent superiority of Ishmael's fate, Melville does not explicitly indicate this. Instead, he subtly suggests that Ishmael's survival is lonely and empty after being rescued: "It was the devious Rachel, who in her backward search for her missing children, found only one more orphan." (724) That single instance of the moniker “orphan” applied to Ishmael speaks volumes when taken in light of the destruction of the Pequod and its crew. Melville's inclusion of Ishmael's survival as an epilogue, a suffix linked to the dramatic destruction of the Pequod, suggests that Ishmael's survival is an afterthought on the fate of Ahab and the rest of his crew. Ishmael's quiet words at the beginning of the chapter, "Why then does anyone come forward? - Because one survived the shipwreck," (723) indicate a deep humility