Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen

Update for To Be Wanted:

Ahab utters these words—his last—after Moby Dick destroys the Pequod, in Chapter 135. As the action picks up pace, the sense of tragedy becomes heightened. These words, Shakespearean in tone, are meant to match the dramatic nature of the situation in which they are spoken. Ahab dies as he began, defiant but aware of his fate. The whale is “all-destroying but unconquering”: its victory has been inevitable, but it has not defeated Ahab’s spirit. In an ultimate demonstration of defiance, Ahab uses his “last breath” to curse the whale and fate. He is, spiritually, already in “hell’s heart,” and he acquiesces to his own imminent death.

Sparknotes Study Guide:
Important Quotations Explained: Moby-Dick.

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Image: David Farley: The Doctor Fun Archive, 8. April 1998;
Video: Birgit Nordin in Trollflöjten by Ingmar Bergman, 1975.
Resources: Douglas R. Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach:
an Eternal Golden Braid, 1979 (deutsch);
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, 1982;
Dr. Herbert Huber, Türkheim: Die Zauberflöte und Moby Dick or, The Whale.