English Literature Made Easy

  The villain of Billy Budd is John Claggart- a tall, thin, thirty-five years old man with pale skin and dark hair. Little is known of his early life--adding to the ominous mysteriousness that surrounds his character. Melville presents Claggart as the most inscrutable of all characters in the story. He may have committed “some mysterious swindle” and have “found in the navy a convenient and secure refuge.” The narrator offers speculation and rumour about Claggart, suggesting that he was formerly a prisoner, or perhaps he is not even British (or, by implication, not white). Yet these matters remain rumour and speculation. Because Claggart’s fundamental self cannot be understood, his motivations likewise remain unknowable. John Claggart, the master-at-arms on the Bellipotent, is a sort of policeman with the duty of preserving order . He looks educated and out of place, “like a man of high quality, social and moral, who for reasons of his own was keeping incog.” He has “jet curls” ...

  Irony indicates the discrepancy between the anticipated and the real. Billy Budd deals with three kinds of irony. 1 . irony in plot and situations :- the great irony is that a sailor is forced to join a warship Bellipotent/ the Indomitable. The sailor Billy did not commit the murder of Claggart deliberately but is executed. Thus, an unflawed tragic man meets his end. 2. irony in the end :- the last three chapters of the novella deal with irony . the first of these records the death of Captain Vere some days after the capture of the Athee. His dying words are “Billy Budd Billy Budd”. This signifies that his conscience has been pricking him since he gave the judgment of condemning Billy to death by hanging. The second of the last three chapters records the news published in “News from the Mediterranean” where a reversed version of Billy’s death is given. It is written that Claggart is murdered by Billy Budd, and Billy is called a ‘traitor’ whereas it was totally different in re...

    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 cri...

  Although the narrator rarely alludes to the Bible explicitly , Billy Budd contains many implicit allusions to the imagery, language, and stories of the Bible, creating a sustained parallel between Billy’s story and Christ’s Passion, the story of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. Like Christ, Billy sacrifices his life as the innocent victim of a hostile society. He possesses a remarkable degree of innocence and purity, leading the narrator to compare him to Adam before the Fall. When questioned about his parentage Billy replies that “God knows” who his father is. Though Billy himself is not patently ironic, the narrator’s sense of literary play makes this statement provocatively double-layered. During the interview between Claggart, Vere, and Billy, Billy’s speechlessness is “as a crucifixion to behold,” and Vere later refers to Billy as “an angel of God.” At the moment of Billy’s death, the sunlight filters through the clouds making it seem like “the fleece of the Lam...

  Captain “Starry” Vere’s name is apt because (1) he must veer from his desire and even love for Billy in condemning the latter to death; (2) Vere suggests veritas , Latin for truth; and (3) “Starry” Vere suggests that he embodies a higher or transcendent truth that differs from popular opinion or desire, as represented by everyone else on the ship. Captain Vere is called Fairfax Vere, the surname suggesting in Latin a ‘true man’. It denotes a dependable stalwart leader; but the greatest irony is that a man whose name means honesty and justice does injustice by punishing and hanging Billy. His name also indicates another angle- veering between attitudes. This means that he veers between law and conscience. He symbolises how an individual is bound to the rules of society. In persecuting Billy, Vere decides to follow the letter of the Law, despite his knowledge that Billy personifies goodness and innocence. Vere is under the pressure of his position as a leader with that the men mu...

  His real name is William Budd. The word “Budd” suggests emerging flower and typifies the notion of innocence and immaturity . He is young, handsome lovable Sailor whom is falsely accused of conspiracy mutiny by the evil master-at-arms Claggart. He is impulsive and suffers from impediment in voice. For his impulsive nature he strikes Claggart on the forehead and kills him unintentionally. This action was taken against the naval decorum. Though unintentional, the act is taken as an offence against military discipline. Trial goes on against Billy; he is pitied by some officers but as a matter of discipline he is hanged. The officers could recognize innocence in his behaviour and were against rapid judgement but ironically, he was condemned to death by hanging. The greatest irony is that for this unjust action the main responsibility for the decision goes with Captain Vere, an intellectual and thoughtful man and a father figure to Billy. He was a follower of strict military code ...

  Billy Budd has been interpreted variously by the scholars as: ·        A simple allegory of the struggle between good (represented by Billy Budd) and evil (John Claggart). ·        A symbolic tale of a boyish Christ, his physical destruction by evil, and the resulting resurrection of his spirit through the other sailors' admiration of his virtues. ·        A recreation of Adam and his destruction by Satan. ·        T he embodiment of coming of age through the stereotypical son (Billy Budd) who must justify his acts to an authoritative father figure (Captain Vere). ·        T he story of a blameless journeyman or pilgrim who falls victim to the cynical malevolence that lurks in an imperfect world ·        T he struggle of everyman against the machinery of arbitrary justice. ·   ...