The character Ahab's pursuit for Moby Dick is similar to society's pursuit for Hester's as a symbol of their passion for (and against) sinfulness. For Ahab, Moby Dick is a desire that has turned into a passion because its elusiveness; his not being able to capture the great whale became a source of frustration from him. Passion eventually develops as a result, where Ahab does not care anymore whether he lives or not, just as long as he lives long enough to capture Moby Dick. As Ahab tells Starbuck, his pursuit for Moby Dick is guided by his own passion, claiming that he is "Fates' lieutenant."
Poe in the Imp of the Perverse is perhaps the perfect example of Hawthorne's and Melville's interpretation of the "great blackness" embedded within works of literature. In Imp, the narrator talks about his passion for secrecy, death, and insanity, forbidden concepts and behavior that society would not talk about...
What makes death and insanity objects of humanity's passion are, like Melville's Moby Dick and Hawthorne's Hester, their elusiveness. It is only through courageous disclosures such as Poe's Imp that human society knows the true nature of experiencing death and/or insanity.
In a similar vein as Poe, Dickinson's poems are also examples of literary works that reflect humanity's passion for death and/or insanity. In poem 449, the poet expresses her own contemplation of what death and insanity are like. The poem identifies death and insanity (especially insanity) as a condition wherein human understanding goes beyond human understanding. Humankind's quest for the truth is the reason for the continued passion of people for death and insanity, an illustration of their attempt to reach a higher state of understanding life, existence, and the world in general.
