Ahab vs. Starbuck: Moral Conflict

Starbuck: 'Vengeance on a dumb brute!... that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.' Ahab replies that all visible objects are 'pasteboard masks.'

Ahab's most human moment, weeping with Starbuck about his wife and child, before steeling himself again for the hunt.