What deeper meaning is suggested by Ahab's desire to "strike through the mask of things"?

In his famous speech on the quarterdeck, Captain Ahab angrily responds to Starbuck's claim that it is sinful to take revenge on an animal, an animal that's incapable of willful cruelty. But Ahab believes that the world and everything in it, including animals, is just a mask that obscures a hidden reality. And the great white whale that he's made it his life's work to destroy has its own reality beneath the outward appearance—its mask—that it presents to the world.
Whereas Starbuck sees only a dumb animal, the vengeful Ahab sees "some unknown but still reasoning thing," a symbol of a giant cosmic order in which everything happens for a reason. Moby Dick, like everything in the world, represents a deeper reality. And in order to penetrate to that reality, it's essential to "strike through the mask" as Ahab puts it. In the case of Moby Dick, that means taking revenge.