Meaning: Anxiety
Depiction: Exhausted, Pip floats on his back, a torn scrap of cloth covering his eyes to shield them from the sun. Nine sharks (standing in for the nine lances or swords of the suit) encircle him. In the background to the right, the far-off Pequod approaches.
Text: Chapter 93-The Castaway
Out from the centre of the sea, poor Pip turned his crisp, curling, black head to the sun, another lonely castaway, though the loftiest and the brightest.
Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore. But the awful lonesomeness is intolerable. The intense concentration of self in the middle of such a heartless immensity, my God! who can tell it?
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Comments: On the original RWS card, the cheerful pattern on the quilt is supposed to represent hope; here I have the approaching ship playing the same role. I also had thought about using Ch. 31 -Queen Mab for this card, since it's about an actual dream, but Stubb's surreal dream doesn't have anything to do with anxiety.
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