Billy Budd Essay Research Paper Matthew Chisam

Billy Budd Essay, Research Paper

Matthew Chisam

English III Period 5

10-16-2000

Billy Budd Journal

Setting: The story begins on the merchant ship rights-of-man. Billy is impressed by the British navy ship the H.M.S. Belliportent, he goes without confrontation. The story takes place in 1797 around July of that year. The ship is the main setting bu

many over look the great importance of the sea in the story. The ship is torn between mutiny and is in the middle of a war between the French and British. The ship is on route to meet up with other members of there fleet in the Mediterranean. As the

ip is on route they encounter a French ship off the coast of Gibraltar. The French ship is able to avert the Bellipotent because of its superior speed. The Bellipotent is a heavily armored gunner ship. The extent o the ships interior is limited to th

sleeping quarter and storage rooms; the other rooms are not described in great detail. Billy sleeps on the bottom bunk in his sleeping quarters. A man named Squeak lives down below the ships deck along with the rats. The gun deck is outfitted with seve

y-eight cannons, this is a cramped place because of the amount of gunpowder and cannon balls that are strewn about the lower deck. When arriving in the Mediterranean the crew encounters a large French ship called the Athee. The ship is heavily armored

ut is out gunned by the Bellipotent.

Point of View: In the novel Billy Budd the point of view is in the narrative format in which the characters are seen as if you could read there thoughts and see all of the actions of the characters. By writing the novel in the third person it made the

ovel much more difficult to comprehend because of the amount of information that is presented to the reader. But the insight that the reader gets from the characters balances out the pros and cons of third person. The novel was very wordy which made

ading of the novel difficult at times. Thought without the third person we would not have ever known that Claggart went to Squeak and there are more examples we would not have known what had happened after Billy.s death. If the point of view was from

lly.s eyes. All we would know is what he saw and what his thoughts where. But by writing in the third person Melville is able to get inside of each of the characters and tell the reader his thoughts and what is done behind the main characters back. T

point of view that Melville choose was a good choice because of the characters and what was done without the knowledge of the main character. The superior insight the was given made the novel the masterpiece that it is.

Theme: The message of the novel is the cruel twist of fate and hatred and in which life is not fair. Billy Budd is wrongfully executed because of jealousy and hatred. If Billy was the epiphany of good then Claggart is the epiphany of evil. In the be

nning there is little interaction with Claggart and Billy. But even though Billy does not know that Claggart is plotting against him; in the end Claggart gets what is coming to him. But in the end because of careful planning on the part of Claggart, B

ly is hanged. Three days after the death of Billy the British found that Billy was guilty of neither treason nor murder. I don.t know the full extent to the symbolism that is personified in those last few sentences. The last words of the dying captai

are .Billy Budd, Billy Budd.. The captain feels that Billy will be waiting for him after he dies, he is almost calling to him and telling him that he will be there soon. Again Melville shows that even the good die and that the only person that helped

lly and cared for Billy was Dansker. Dansker is an old sailor who will soon feel the cold hand of death. And the Afterguardsman who is a tool of Claggart is not punished for what he does because Billy does not wish to tell the captain. In short Melvi

e gives the reader a hard dose of reality in which the good do not always live; and the bad can go unpunished.

Conflict: The conflicts in the book are meaningless but give a symbolic meaning behind them like when Billy jumps on the bow of the Bellipontent to bids farewell to the Rights-of-Man the lieutenant yells at Billy and tells him to site down. Billy is

w in a new world in which discipline is the difference between life and death. He is no longer on the easy going Rights-of-man but is on the military ship the Bellipontent. This was only a minor conflict but is does send out a message. The biggest co

lict in the novel is built early in the story. Claggart is jealous of Billy beauty and will do anything to justify the killing of Billy. He talks to Squeak who justices what Claggart wants to do. Billy is almost god like and this is killing Claggart

the inside. Claggart tells that captain that Billy is a mutineer and should be put to death for his crime. When Billy is confronted by this he is so enraged that he punches Claggart with so much force that he kills Claggart. The captain sees this an

does not believe what he saw. A trial is held and Billy is found guilty of mutiny and of murder. He is hanged and his last words were a blessing .God bless Captain Vere.. Throughout the story there are signs of conflict between Billy and Claggart. Wh