1. Contrast Billy Budd with other innocents from literature, such as Lenny Small in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men or Benjy in William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. 2. Discuss the sources of major allusions in the novel. 3. Explain possible reasons for Claggart’s animosity toward Billy. 4. […]
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about ship return to duties. Abraham may have caught young Isaac Melville compares the Captain’s private conference with Billy to Abraham’s intimate discussion with Isaac, his condemned son, in Genesis 22:1–8 of the Old Testament. according to the Articles of War As stated in Article XXII of the Principles and […]
Read more Study Help Full Glossary for Billy BuddCritical Essays Style in Billy Budd
Through the use of innumerable literary devices, Melville unified his narrative and gave meaning and order to it. Such devices include irony, symbol, foreshadowing, suspense, biblical and mythological allusion, extended metaphor, rhetorical question, poetic diction, and simile. So extensive is the use of mythic figures, stories, and analogues, that the […]
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One suggested theme of Billy Budd is the corruption of innocence by society. Melville seems to prefer the primitive state over civilized society. If this posthumous work is indeed the author’s last will and testament, the theme may indicate his personal resignation and acceptance of the imperfection of life. It […]
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Melville tells the story by means of a shadowy first-person narrator. His identity is never revealed, his character never developed, nor is this necessary, for Melville may have intended himself to be thought of as the omniscient observer. If so, it is Melville, the complex artist working with imaginative material, […]
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Although the setting is a ship, the sea is largely overlooked because the novel looks inward. The microcosm of the ship stands out against the background of war and mutiny at a time when revolution against tyranny and oppression threatened to force the Western world into anarchy as the masses […]
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In the last chapter, Melville reveals Billy’s immortality. His fellow sailors, moved by a face that never sneered or revealed vileness of heart, raise Billy to the level of legend and saint. One from his own watch is so influenced by his sad tale that he creates a crude ballad […]
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Melville appears to have added the last three chapters to square the story with reality. They also serve as a completion of the myth. It is the memory of Billy rather than of Claggart or Vere that survives. The poem reads as though it takes place in Billy’s mind both […]
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At several places in the novel, the crew serves as a chorus. The Dansker cryptically delivers the Delphic message to Billy, “Jemmy Legs is down on you.” At the moment that Billy strikes Claggart, Captain Vere whispers, “Fated boy.” From the moment of Billy’s hanging, there is falling action until […]
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Billy, the central figure, holds the novel together. He is present in every scene and every thought, even after his death. The novel begins with a description of him aboard the Rights-of-Man. It reaches its dramatic climax in the confrontation between Billy and Claggart. The height of significance takes place […]
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