In the first portrait, "Ahab in All His Fatal Pride," we see the stern and confident face of Ahab as the characters in the book would see him. In this picture we see Ahab's scar (from his encounter with the whale), but it does not appear to affect him now as it will later. In fact, everything in this picture seems nice and solid. In my interpretation of this series, we see that the wood of the mast behind Ahab seems to center around him, much as the captain is the center of a ship at sea. Next we have a solid beam that runs around the mast and represents Ahab's career. Solid, uniform, a constant. But in the upper right hand corner we see the gold coin that represents Ahab's encounter with Moby Dick, and take note of the grain of the wood under the coin. It seems to be centered around the coin and not Ahab.
on to the next picture