“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.”
Ishmael describes going to sea as his personal response when his mood turns bleak and restless, linking emotional self-recognition with movement toward the ocean.
Source details
Moby Dick; Or, The Whale, Chapter 1, “Loomings,” represented by Project Gutenberg #2701. Ishmael describes going to sea when his mood becomes grim, restless and drawn toward death imagery. The passage is fictional first-person narration and a literary coping pattern, not mental-health, suicide-prevention or medical advice.