There has been much speculation on the relationship between Pip and Captain Ahab. Is Pip to Ahab as Queequeg is to Ishmael? As Jester is to King?

I take a different stance on their relationship however, I believe the two are one in the same. They are the only two crew mates aboard the Pequod who have lost a part of themselves at sea. It is that connection, and that understanding that provides the basis for their relationship. Captain Ahab’s leg was taken from him by the infamous whale Moby Dick, and with his leg went his pride, soul, and sanity. He is referred to as a “monomaniac” several times throughout the text by Ishmael and like-terms are used by his crew. After jumping out of Stubb’s whale boat the once lively Pip who, “loved life, and all life’s peaceable security” (Melville 319) was driven mad by the hour of solitude he spent in the sea before being rescued. Although his body is rescued by the crew ,the sea, “drowned the infinite of his soul” (Melville 321). Pip claims to have had some sort of divine experience, and throughout the rest of the text he appears to have no sense of self identity and refers to himself in first person, “Pip? whom ye call Pip? Pip jumped from the whale-boat. Pip’s missing” (Melville 391). Captain Ahab finally realizing he is not the only madman aboard takes Pip under his wing out of what is not pity, but comprehension. The sea has robbed them of something that can not be replaced, but in attempt to fill the hole of what is no longer there they develop a friendship.