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Age and build

Vast bulk and great magnitude

“a Sperm Whale of uncommon magnitude and malignity” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Mature, aged specimen

“the solitaries and hermits among the matured, aged sperm whales” (Moby Dick, part 54)

Face and hair

Snow-white brow and hump, distinctive and unmistakable

“the peculiar snow-white brow of Moby Dick, and his snow-white hump, could not but be unmistakable” (Moby Dick, part 54)

Wrinkled brow and crooked jaw

“a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw” (Moby Dick, part 46)

Scrolled lower jaw with white glistening teeth

“two long crooked rows of white, glistening teeth, floating up from the undiscoverable bottom. It was Moby Dick’s open mouth and scrolled jaw” (Moby Dick, part 143)

Vast wrinkled forehead

“He saw the vast, involved wrinkles of the slightly projecting head beyond” (Moby Dick, part 143)

Dress

Entire body streaked, spotted, and marbled white

“The rest of his body was so streaked, and spotted, and marbled with the same shrouded hue, that, in the end, he had gained his distinctive appellation of the White Whale” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Milky-white head and hump with crows' feet and wrinkles

“a bouncing great whale, with a milky-white head and hump, all crows’ feet and wrinkles” (Moby Dick, part 111)

Broad fins bored and scalloped like a lost sheep's ear

“His broad fins are bored, and scalloped out like a lost sheep’s ear” (Moby Dick, part 54)

Three holes punctured in starboard fluke

“with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke” (Moby Dick, part 46)

Voice and speech

The book is silent here, so we keep this plain and neutral.

Signature words

The book is silent here, so we keep this plain and neutral.

Gait and mannerisms

Gliding motion through water leaving milky wake

“when seen gliding at high noon through a dark blue sea, leaving a milky-way wake of creamy foam, all spangled with golden gleamings” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Spout like a shock of wheat, white as Nantucket wool

“his spout is a big one, like a whole shock of wheat, and white as a pile of our Nantucket wool after the great annual sheep-shearing” (Moby Dick, part 46)

Fan-tails like a split jib in a squall

“he fan-tails like a split jib in a squall” (Moby Dick, part 46)

Breaching with utmost velocity from the depths

“Rising with his utmost velocity from the furthest depths, the Sperm Whale thus booms his entire bulk into the pure element of air, and piling up a mountain of dazzling foam” (Moby Dick, part 144)

Sudden rushing attacks with open jaws and lashing tail

“rushing among the boats with open jaws, and a lashing tail, offered appalling battle on every side” (Moby Dick, part 144)

Dashing forehead against boat bottoms with tremendous force

“the White Whale dashed his broad forehead against its bottom, and sent it, turning over and over, into the air” (Moby Dick, part 144)

Strengths

Outrageous strength with inscrutable malice

“I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it” (Moby Dick, part 46)

Escaped alive from repeated intrepid assaults

“after repeated, intrepid assaults, the White Whale had escaped alive” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Infernal aforethought of ferocity in attacks

“such seemed the White Whale’s infernal aforethought of ferocity, that every dismembering or death that he caused, was not wholly regarded as having been inflicted by an unintelligent agent” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Reaped away Ahab's leg with seeming malice

“suddenly sweeping his sickle-shaped lower jaw beneath him, Moby Dick had reaped away Ahab’s leg, as a mower a blade of grass in the field. No turbaned Turk, no hired Venetian or Malay, could have smote him with more seeming malice” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Flaws

Malicious intelligence and cunning

“Moby Dick, with that malicious intelligence ascribed to him, sidelingly transplanted himself, as it were, in an instant” (Moby Dick, part 143)

Vengeful and maddened by fresh irons

“maddened by yesterday’s fresh irons that corroded in him, Moby Dick seemed combinedly possessed by all the angels that fell from heaven” (Moby Dick, part 145)

Traits

Legendary and famous among whalers

“so famous and precious a fish” (Moby Dick, part 64)

Seemingly ubiquitous and immortal in rumour

“declaring Moby Dick not only ubiquitous, but immortal (for immortality is but ubiquity in time” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Invested with supernatural terror and dread

“all manner of morbid hints, and half-formed fœtal suggestions of supernatural agencies, which eventually invested Moby Dick with new terrors unborrowed from anything that visibly appears” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Personification of all malice and evil to Ahab

“all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick” (Moby Dick, part 51)

Lines in their own words

The book is silent here, so we keep this plain and neutral.