In the final section of Moby Dick, why does Ahab die, and why does Ishmael live? Consider the human cost of the Pequod's sinking, what forces save...

With Ishmael and Ahab there is clearly a dichotomy: the humble man of no family or special rank, a godly man who develops relationships with other men and of the spirit, and the ungodly, god-like man who refuses to subject himself to any higher power. Ahab dies because, as Ishmael notes,

For all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness....All mortal greatness is but disease.

On the other hand, Ismael, who develops...

With Ishmael and Ahab there is clearly a dichotomy: the humble man of no family or special rank, a godly man who develops relationships with other men and of the spirit, and the ungodly, god-like man who refuses to subject himself to any higher power. Ahab dies because, as Ishmael notes,

For all men tragically great are made so through a certain morbidness....All mortal greatness is but disease.

On the other hand, Ismael, who develops relationships on his voyage, grows spiritually.

Herman Melville's dark philosophical novel bears resemblance to many a religious and classic tale in which hubris plays a great role. Whereas the innocent Ishmael, takes to the sea because he has "nothing particular" to interest him on land, Captain Ahab, a blasphemous man, is driven to avenge himself upon Moby-Dick, a great white whale upon whom he imbues a certain inscrutability, a force that Ahab is certain is evil if he can but "strike through the mask" and find what metaphysical force lies beneath.

One explanation of Ishmael's survival as opposed to Ahab's death is proffered by Professor Karen Tanguma of Coastal Bend College, who writes in her criticism about the "Adamic Myth" of nineteenth century American literature:

Ishmael (Adam) suffered into knowledge and spiritual rebirth and returned to the human race. Melville enhanced Ahab's unfortunate fall, through the novel's dark elements of evil, fear, and dark history.... Ahab (tragic Adam) became consumed with rage after his encounter with the whale and emerged as a dead man. 

Certainly, in some ways. also, Moby Dick rings of Paradise Lost, which addresses how man endures in a fallen world. Whereas Ishmael, who declares, "There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness," finds his wisdom in the midst of the tragic events of the death of the crew and destruction of the ship at the end. By exerting his free will, he takes life from the symbol of death, Queequeg's coffin, and is saved by holding on to what once belonged to his spiritual friend. On the other hand, Ahab perceives the ship as "the second hearse" and goes to his lonely death--"Thus I give up the spear"--having challenged "madness personified" in the great white whale and failed.