Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Ishmael (Moby-Dick) Ishmael is a fictional character in Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick" (1851). Ishmael, the only surviving crewmember of the "Pequod", is the narrator of the book. His importance relies on his role as narrator; as a character, he is only a minor participant in the action and the main protagonist is Captain Ahab. The Biblical name has come to symbolize orphans, exiles, and social outcasts. Because he was the first person narrator, most of the criticism of "Moby-Dick" either confused Ishmael with the author himself or overlooked him. From the mid-twentieth century onward, critics distinguished Ishmael from Melville, establishing the
Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael R. Ishmael and his pupils constitute the larger part of his Mekhilta. Similarly, most of the anonymous maxims in the work were derived from the same source, so that it also was known as the "Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael." The redactor must have been a pupil of Rebbi, since the latter is frequently mentioned (comp. Abraham ibn Daud in "Sefer HaKabbalah" in A. Neubauer, "M. J. C.", p. 57, Oxford, 1887, who likewise ascribes it to a pupil of Rebbi). He cannot, however, have been R. Hoshaiah, as A. Epstein assumes ("Beiträge zur Jüdischen Alterthumskunde," p. 55, Vienna, 1887), as