Ishmael

Ishmael is the first-person narrator of Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick, which famously opens with the line Call me Ishmael. Although he plays a minor role in the plot, leading early critics to assume Captain Ahab was the protagonist, his significance has been reevaluated over time.

Many early readers confused Ishmael with Melville or overlooked his contributions entirely. However, later critics have distinguished the character from the author, with some arguing that Ishmael’s mystic and speculative consciousness serves as the central force of the novel rather than the monomaniacal will of Captain Ahab.