The Moby-Dick Bible
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Symbolism › Bloody Nails

Bloody Nails

1 passage in the novel carry this mark, in the order they appear.

His broad fins are bored, and scalloped out like a lost sheep’s ear! And here, his mad mind would run on in a breathless race; till a weariness and faintness of pondering came over him; and in the open air of the deck he would seek to recover his strength. Ah, God! what trances of torments does that man endure who is consumed with one unachieved revengeful desire. He sleeps with clenched hands; and wakes with his own bloody nails in his palms.

Chapter 44, The Chart · verse 16

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