Billy Budd Essay

BILLY BUDD ESSAY
Name
Institution

Billy Budd is a novel written in 1888 by Herman Melville, and published in 1924 after his death. The novel is about a man known as Billy Bud, who chosen to join a ship known as HMS Bellipotent, and has to leave the one he was in, The Rights of Man (Melville, 1962). The book has the setting of 1797 and most of it is on Billy’s new ship. This paper aims to show that the most fruitful approach to this novel is as a religious allegorical reading.
In the novel, Billy can be compared to the Biblical Adam, before he fell. The novel describes Billy as untampered with a flavor similar to berries (Melville, 1962). The author of the novel, Melville, chooses to act as a “creator” since he gives Billy various superhuman characteristics which give him the traits of God’s servants. Due to his peace-making qualities, Billy appears Christ-like. The novel also has religious symbolism when Billy shifts from the ship “Rights of Man” to the Bellipotent; it looks like the ordaining of a minister to become a Bishop. Bellipotent suggests a good ship, since belli- stand for kind and –potent stands for strong.
At the time of this novel, wars were raging, which was later known as the Great Mutiny (a period when most sailors rebelled). This explains most of Melville’s story. He introduces Captain Vere and portrays him as a person who is strict with discipline and only allows obedience to duty. Therefore, he foreshadows many things for the readers. He lets readers see how Billy will have a conflict with another sailor, and might be accused of mutiny because such thoughts are already in the minds of many officers.
Eventually, Billy encounters his enemy, Claggart, however, he is not aware of it. Since Billy is young, innocent and handsome, Claggart envies him a lot. Therefore, the author suggests that Billy represents good (God) and Claggart represents evil (Devil). The other religious symbolism can be seen from the Bible when King Saul envies David since he was a favorite among people. When a corporal aboard the ship, known as Squeak, lies and instigates on Billy to Claggart, it tends to cause more anxiety between the two (Melville, 1962). Claggart continues with his plot to ruin Billy after he tells an after guardsman to give Billy a bribe to play a part in attempting a mutiny but Billy refuses and threatens to throw the man overboard. This also has religious significance when one looks at the story of the devil tempting Jesus to bow down to him so that he can be given the worldly possessions.
As the novel continues, Claggart tells the captain that Billy was planning a mutiny and when confronted by the captain and Claggart, Billy panics gets overexcited and knocks Claggart so hard that he dies (Melville, 1962). However, although the captain knew everything about Billy’s case, he never wanted to risk his reputation among the sailors by losing the attitude of discipline and respect. The Captain’s testimony only hurts Billy more, instead of helping him. Billy is sentenced to death and before he dies, Billy utters, “God bless Captain Vere”. This has religious significance since it is almost similar to what Jesus says “forgive them since they do not know what they are doing”.
Eventually, when the Bellipotent is approaching the English fleet, they get attacked by ...