Analytical Essay: The Actions Of Billy Budd

      In his decision making, Vere reminded himself he was under the oath of the King, not human inclinations. If Vere had not done this Billy might have lived. This was not, however, the real reason for changing his mind. The real reason was because others would have followed in Billy’s alleged footsteps if he were not punished. Billy Budd’s life was sacrificed for an unjust reason, and the circumstances surrounding his death were definitely questionable. However, Vere made the decision that he had to although it wasn't morally right for Captain Vere it was the only fair decision he could have made to hang him. The consequences of what might have happened if his life had been spared were far greater that those of grief for Billy's death. Billy’s death was truly necessary for things to remain in order on the ship, especially without crew members entertaining the idea of killing another or starting a mutiny. The hanging of Billy Budd shows the need for punishment to occur for justice to

A question that arises in almost any medium of art, be it music, film or literature, is whether or not the depiction of violence is merely gratuitous or whether it is a legitimate artistic expression. There can be no doubt that Michael Ondaatje's long poem The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is a violent work, but certain factors should be kept in mind before passing it off as an attempt to shock and titillate; certainly, the poem does both of these, but they are not the primary purpose of the work. For one thing, social context needs to be considered; Billy lived in the "Wild West", a time associated with range wars, shoot-outs and great train

This word choice shows that Billy’s followers were in deep frustration and anger due to the situation they had to endure. Indignation will also have been felt as it is suggested that Billy is superior to them along with taking the majority of the money brought in by the disillusioned young men. This produces our disliking of Billy because of the malevolent and selfish way he treated his seemingly loyal followers.

In 2001 a new poet laureate was crowned and a new voice; the voice of

Before there had been conflict between them, because Helen looked down on Billy for being a cripple, and Billy was hurt by how she treated him. In this exchange, we can see that Billy is realizing that this kind of rough talk is part of Helen’s personality. He realizes that he will have to accept this part of Helen and remember that it is her form of tough love. Helen is also learning in this exchange. She starts out being very harsh and almost cruel to Billy, however, she relents and begins speaking kinder.

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”- Ludwig Wittgenstein. The narrator, Holden, tells the story in the vernacular language of a teen in the 50s: slangy and colloquial. J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is about a teenager's major struggle against death and growing up in the 1950s. The book takes place in Agerstown, Pennsylvania. Holden Caulfield, Phoebe, Allie, D.B., and Mr. Antolini are the main characters. There are plenty of symbolic things in The Catcher in the Rye. A major one is ‘the catcher in the rye’; Holden wants to save himself and other children from having to grow up into an adult world he thinks is bogus. Another is Holden's red hunting hat. It is a symbol of his alienation and attachment to childhood.

Billy Budd deals with a sailor who is the titular character of the novella. Billy was impressed on the Bellipotent but he was accepted by the crew of the ship for being kind-hearted and a handsome man many people adored. One day, Billy accidentally spilled his soup and Claggart, who has a hatred towards Billy, decides to plot against him. Late at night, Billy overheard two men talking about a mutiny and was wrongly accused for the rumor (talking about mutiny against the captain is a crime) by Claggart, the ship’s master-at-arms. Billy, filled with animosity, retaliates by striking Claggart and accidentally murders the man. The ship’s captain, Vere, summons a drumhead court-martial in fear of a mutiny bursting in any second. Vere follows the rule and have Billy hanged. In the essays of Charles Reich and Robert Martin, they claim that the decisions of the captain was wrongful. They are in the right mindset to believe that Billy shouldn't had been killed.

Every time Claggart witnessed the relationship between Billy and the rest of the crew, he was reminded of how much hatred he felt towards Billy. All in all, he hated the fact that Billy was popular and envied him for his innocence and beauty. Claggart was born with an evil soul, and nothing could change that. It is no secret that this story brings a sense bad and good; a sense of irrationality.

In a number of ways, Billy’s fate parallels that of Jesus Christ, suggesting that the sacrifice of Billy’s innocence represents both a significant loss for the world and a hope for mankind’s redemption. It would be a mistake, however, to view Billy simply as a Christ figure. Billy is a flawed human being, even violent at times. Unlike Christ, Billy does not willingly or even wittingly sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Whereas Christ, in his death, intentionally takes all of the sins of the world upon himself to save humankind from evil, Billy dies because he cannot comprehend evil or defend himself adequately against it.

Billy Weaver’s tea “[tastes] faintly of bitter almonds”, which hints to the readers that the tea contains arsenic poison, but he “[does not] care much for it].” Even though Roald Dahl does not explicitly show Billy’s death in the story, the readers can see his death. Billy Weaver is not only a fictional character, but a representation of naïve people including young children, teenagers and inexperienced members in society. Appearance is easy to see, but someone’s real-self is not easy to see, so naïve people can be fooled easily like Billy Weaver. They can be easily deceived by good appearances and end up with unwanted consequences such as kidnap, sexual harassment, fraud and death. If Billy Weaver had not trusted the landlady so easily, he would not have lost his precious life. The landlady and Billy Weaver teach the readers how deceiving appearance is, and fatal consequences that follow after misjudgement of a

 As with many great works of literature, it is important to become familiar with the author's life and time period in which he or she lived. This understanding helps to clarify the significance and meaning of his or her work. In many ways, Billy Budd depicts issues of importance to Herman Melville with both direct and indirect parallels to the time of the Civil War and to particular individuals of Melville's life. Important to the creation of Billy Budd were the war, current politics, slavery, and even the assassination of President Lincoln. This essay intends to identify the analogous relationship between these incidences and the particular individuals of Melville's life that

b."To deal in double meanings and insinuations of any sort was quite foreign to his nature"(Melville 22) Throughout the novella Melville describes Billy as aloof to many of the snide comments happening around him. Some critics argue that Billy just rejects anything other than innocence consciously but the quote says otherwise. I think Billy Budd was entirely unaware of insinuations of any sort but as the story continued got increasingly uncomfortable with these insinuations and double meanings that he lashed out and killed Captain Vere.

Billy Budd is the story of the sailor Billy Budd and his time on the H.M.S Bellipotent during the last decade of the 18th century, after being impressed from the previous ship he was on “The Rights of Man”. He was seen as a “handsome sailor”, and was loved by his old crew. He was also innocent to a fault. This man could not see the bad or suspicious in someone at all. In the context of this novel, he was the purest good in this ship, which could also be seen as a microcosm of the world as it was. Billy as a whole is seen mainly as a man without fault. He could do no wrong in his world, because he is the personification of all that is good. This makes his one flaw, that being his stutter, the perfect aspect of his being to show us of the dangers of innocence. The fact that he cannot bring words out to defend himself against the malice tossed at him because his very being will not allow him to even comprehend that there are people in the world with such ill intent. Ill intent does not exist to him, and it ultimately proved to be his undoing.

A Comparison of Mrs Casper, Mr Sugden and Mr Farthing's Treatment of Billy in Barry Hines' Billy's Last Stand

Throughout the novella, Melville gives characteristics to Billy that symbolize Jesus. In the beginning of the story Melville relates Billy to a Saint Bernard dog, "self-consciousness he seemed to have little or none, or about as much as we may reasonably impute to a dog of Saint Bernard’s breed" (11). Ironically, the Saint Bernard breed, not only by protecting people, is very apt to save people which correlates to Jesus being sent to save all people from their sins[COMBO]. With Billy's innocence and being enclosed in his "bud" form, he is negligent to the evil in the world until he meets Claggart. "One to whom not yet has been proffered the questionable apple of knowledge" parallels the story of Adam and Eve and how they were unaware of the evil around them until they ate the apple from the tree God forbade them to (11). Claggart represents the evil and is the ultimate downfall and cause of Billy's own death. Billy, because he killed Claggart, is hanged [PER]. Captain Vere, the captain of the ship Billy is aboard, is symbolic to Pilate who condemned Jesus even though he did not personally believe in the accusations. Captain Vere sentenced Billy to be hanged and Billy's last words were "God bless Captain Vere!" (80). This is symbolic to how Jesus was able to forgive the even the people who falsely condemned him just as Billy did. Although Billy shows multiple symbolic qualities to Jesus,