Essays on Billy Budd

When Herman Melville was writing, capital punishment was a much more commonly used punishment than it is in our own time, and as much as modern death penalty opponents talk about the mistaken use of it in cases when the convict has been wrongly sentenced, the swiftness of the execution and the shoddiness of the evidentiary requirements in Melville’s time were comparatively barbaric. Captain Vere is typical of the sort of judge who would have rendered that sentence in that day, brought in at the last moment and then hearing a fairly swift (and legally shaky) summary of ...

The chance to reinvent ourselves is one of the most compelling in the vast human experience. It is what compelled James Gatz to become Jay Gatsby, and to leave the life of a dirt farm family to own a series of ostensible pharmacies that sold illegal liquor out the back door, all so that he could win the love of Daisy and be everything that she wanted. It is what compels audiences to watch movies that show stories of change and transformation. Change can be complicated because it can end up leading to consequences that we did not expect, ...

Introduction 2

Capitan Vere’s Struggle 4 Capitan Vere’s Just Action 6 Capitan Vere’s Biblical Implications: Sacrifice to Save Many 9 Capitan Vere’s Biblical Implications: Actions and Consequences 9 Conclusion 10 Works Cited 12 Captain Vere’s Choice In Herman Melville’s exceptional novel Billy Bud, Captain Vere is forced to execute the charismatic Billy Bud, a character who accidentally kills a naval officer that accuses him of mutiny. Many readers hold that Captain Vere is unjust in this action towards Billy, as the evil naval officer, Claggart, provoked him. This latter character untruthfully accuses Billy Bud of ...

Herman Melville’s Billy budd, sailor is masterpiece in terms of its content and organization. Melville's work has made him one of the most remarkable romantic authors in the nineteenth century whose work has been used as a bench mark for many upcoming writers. His short story Billy budd, sailor, Melville creates a romantic phenomenon whereby the characters involved are the exact opposite of each other. The character Billy is a representation of the good attribute of human behavior. On the contrary, Claggart represents the evil side of the human race. Melville paints Billy as being an innocent character that lacks enough ...

Introduction

Billy Buddy has been presented as a character with exemplary principles. He displays a character that is not common in most men of his caliber. Despite his heroic actions, he remains to be a humble individual who will not want to hurt his opponents. He has the ability to retaliate on those who ill-mistreat him or even curse them yet he chooses to maintain a calm spirit. He is an all rounded man possession all the positive characters that could be desired in an individual. This has earned him a supernatural respect that can only be found in a supreme being. To those who believe ...

On reading Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd it becomes obvious that the story’s implications reach greatly beyond that of a simple tale of a mutiny and hanging at sea. The story is provocatively double layered, heavy in its symbolism and meaning, in which the author’s interest rests, among other things, on a clash of conscience and law, on a never ending war between the individual and the society, the vulnerability of innocence and the final question of whether the readers are to condemn captain Vere for his decision or to respect him. This idea is closely intertwined with the question ...