the dentuso as noble

In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the dentuso—the Mako shark—stands apart from all other sharks as a figure of nobility, beauty, and fearless power. While the later galanos are scavengers driven by mindless hunger, the dentuso is a predator built for speed and strength, and its attack on Santiago's great marlin is not an act of opportunistic feeding but a direct, almost honorable confrontation. The old man's response to this shark reveals the deepest principles of his code: he fights without hope but with resolution, and he judges his enemy not by its threat but by its nature.

Identity and Nature of the Dentuso

The dentuso is described as a very big Mako shark, built to swim as fast as the fastest fish in the sea. Everything about him is beautiful except his jaws. His back is as blue as a swordfish's, his belly is silver, and his hide is smooth and handsome. He is built like a swordfish except for his huge jaws, which are tight shut as he swims fast just under the surface, his high dorsal fin knifing through the water without wavering. Inside the closed double lip of his jaws, all eight rows of his teeth are slanted inwards. They are not the ordinary pyramid-shaped teeth of most sharks but are shaped like a man's fingers when they are crisped like claws, nearly as long as the old man's fingers, with razor-sharp cutting edges on both sides. This is a fish built to feed on all the fishes in the sea, fish that are so fast and strong and well armed that they have no other enemy. The dentuso has no fear at all and will do exactly what he wishes. Santiago thinks of him as "Dentuso" and mutters, "Bad luck to your mother." He is cruel and able and strong and intelligent. Unlike the scavenging galanos, the dentuso lives on live fish as Santiago does; he is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite. He is beautiful and noble and knows no fear of anything.

The Attack and the Old Man's Response

The dentuso comes up from deep down in the water as the dark cloud of blood from the marlin has settled and dispersed in the mile-deep sea. He comes up so fast and absolutely without caution that he breaks the surface of the blue water and is in the sun. When Santiago sees him coming, he knows that this is a shark that has no fear at all and will do exactly what he wishes. The old man prepares the harpoon and makes the rope fast while he watches the shark come on. The rope is short because of what he had cut away to lash the fish. Santiago's head is clear and good now, and he is full of resolution, but he has little hope. He thinks, "It was too good to last." He takes one look at the great fish as he watches the shark close in. The shark closes fast astern, and when he hits the fish, the old man sees his mouth open and his strange eyes and hears the clicking chop of the teeth as he drives forward into the meat just above the tail. The shark's head is out of water, and his back is coming out, and the old man can hear the noise of skin and flesh ripping on the big fish when he rams the harpoon down onto the shark's head at the spot where the line between his eyes intersects with the line that runs straight back from his nose. He hits it with his blood-mushed hands, driving a good harpoon with all his strength, without hope but with resolution and complete malignancy. The shark swings over, and the old man sees his eye is not alive; then he swings over once again, wrapping himself in two loops of the rope. The old man knows that he is dead, but the shark will not accept it. On his back, with his tail lashing and his jaws clicking, the shark plows over the water as a speedboat does. The water is white where his tail beats it, and three-quarters of his body is clear above the water when the rope comes taut, shivers, and then snaps. The shark lies quietly for a little while on the surface, then goes down very slowly.

The Old Man's Judgment and the Dentuso's Significance

After the fight, Santiago estimates that the dentuso took about forty pounds of the marlin's meat, as well as his harpoon and all the rope. He thinks, "But I killed the shark that hit my fish. And he was the biggest dentuso that I have ever seen. And God knows that I have seen big ones." He reflects that the dentuso is cruel and able and strong and intelligent, but that he was more intelligent than the shark—or perhaps only better armed. He enjoys killing the dentuso, because the shark lives on the live fish as he does; he is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are. He is beautiful and noble and knows no fear of anything. Santiago declares, "I killed him in self-defense. And I killed him well." The dentuso thus becomes a worthy adversary, one whose nobility elevates the struggle. The old man's victory over this shark is a genuine triumph of skill and will, even as it leaves him more vulnerable to the scavengers that follow. The dentuso's attack is the first and most dangerous of the shark assaults, and it sets the pattern for the old man's final, losing battle: he can defeat a noble enemy, but he cannot protect his prize from the relentless, ignoble forces that come after.