“The Caine Mutiny” by Herman Wouk: Captain Queeg, famous character of Pulitzer Prize bestseller, has puzzling inconsistency

During WWII, Captain Queeg of the U.S.S. Caine, is removed from command—the so-called Caine mutiny—because the ship’s officers consider him mentally unfit.

But at the court-martial of executive officer Maryk, who had taken command of the ship, psychiatrists who have examined Captain Queeg testify that he is sane.

In court, Captain Queeg’s behavior ranges from perfectly normal to obviously disturbed.

This degree of puzzling inconsistency may be seen in undiagnosed cases of multiple personality. Search “puzzling inconsistency” for past posts on this recurrent issue.

Rational Personality

“The captain shook his head. ‘I’ve got my methods, Tom, and they’re the result of a hell of a lot of observation of human nature. What’s more I’m a damn softhearted guy, strange as that may sound to you, and if I make one exception I’ll start making more and my whole system will fly to pieces, and whatever you may think of the way I run this ship at least it’s been run properly and I’ve made no mistakes yet’ ” (1, p. 307).

When he says he’s made no mistakes, is he lying (to people who were there and saw his mistakes) or does the personality speaking have multiple-personality memory gaps? The reader is not told, but should wonder.

Glowering Personality

“Queeg…resumed his glowering address to the invisible audience in front of and a little above him” (1, p. 184).

“Queeg was at the head of the table, slouched in his purple robe, glowering strait ahead at nothing…” (1, p. 316).

“Queeg’s head was down between his shoulders, and he squinted up at the air in front of him. He suddenly looked much more familiar to Maryk” (1, p. 424).

Comment

Captain Queeg is the most famous character of this Pulitzer Prize-winning bestselling novel, but the author does not appear to know what Queeg is thinking. And Queeg is hardly mentioned in the novel’s last fifty pages, as if the author wanted to avoid him.

As noted above, Queeg appears radically different at different times. Sometimes he sounds like a rational, even sensitive, person. Other times he appears to “address,” or “glower” at, an “invisible audience” (other personalities?).

There is no indication that Herman Wouk intended to portray Queeg as having multiple personality, but it is the diagnosis most consistent with the character’s puzzling inconsistency, which is so great that sometimes he seems perfectly sane (even to psychiatrists), but at other times seems crazy. Multiple personality is not a psychosis, but it can sometimes look that way.

1. Herman Wouk. The Caine Mutiny [1951]. Pleasantville NY, Reader’s Digest Association, 1992.