Abstract: Herman Melville is a great American writer of the 19th century. His masterpiece Moby Dick is considered one of the greatest novels in American history. One of the peculiarities of Moby Dick is Melville’s use of symbolism to express his ideas. This thesis aims to analyze the symbolic elements in the novel, from three aspects: the white whale represents the huge capitalist production and nature; the captain Ahab is the evilness in human nature; the ship is the symbol of death, the final destruction of the crew on Pequod symbolizes man’s fate in society, nature and the universe and the voyage symbolizes man’s pursuit of the final truth of life. It is concluded that the exploration of the symbolic elements in Moby Dick reveals the theme: man should respect nature, any behavior against the nature leads to death.

Key words: Moby Dick; symbolic elements

摘要：赫尔曼麦尔维尔是美国19世纪的著名作家，他的巨著《白鲸》被称为美国历史上最伟大的长篇小说。这部作品的独特之处在于娴熟地利用象征手法来表达作者的思想和见解的艺术手法。本文旨在研究该小说中象征要素。白鲸既象征着庞大的资本主义生产方式，又象征着自然。船长亚哈是人类本质中邪恶的一面的象征。这艘船的名字本身就象征着灭亡，而裴考德号全体船员的最终灭亡象征着人类在社会、自然乃至宇宙的命运；这次航海本身象征着对人类生活最终真理的追求。对《白鲸》中各象征要素的探索揭示了这样的主题：人类应该尊重自然，任何破坏自然的行为都会导致灭亡。

关键词：《白鲸》 ；象征要素