Contemporary Social Situation in Melville's "Billy Budd, Sailor"

 

 

Some readers may see Billy Budd as a critique of impressment, especially in light of Billy’s parting words to the Rights of Man: “Good-bye to you too, old Rights of Man.” In some ways, Billy’s execution results from the differences between the regulations aboard a merchant ship and the much stricter martial codes of the warship. The story might also be seen as a critique of naval practices of discipline, with which Melville takes issue in other works as well (see WHITE JACKET). Shortly after his impressment, Billy is horrified to see a sailor whipped aboard the Indomitable; the incident so moves Billy to fear punishment that he tends his tasks with especial diligence. His own eventual punishment, far more severe than whipping, may be seen to further emphasize the inhumanity of military justice. Some readers may also take the novella as a criticism of capital punishment in general, rather than in a specifically military context.



Billy Budd has also been read as a critique of mutiny or rebellion. In an era of revolution (including the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions) and of mutiny (including the Sommers mutiny to which the story frequently refers), anxiety about the potential uprising of the masses bears heavily on Vere’s understanding of his duties and responsibilities. Readers who believe that Vere made the correct decision in executing Billy might argue that the captain’s responsibility to prevent mutiny and to preserve order by punishing Billy’s offense of striking a superior officer necessarily supersede any personal sympathy Vere might feel for Billy.


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