Herman Melville's Billy Budd as Allegory of Good versus Evil
Herman Melville's Billy Budd relates an allegory of innocence versus evil by symbolizing Billy Budd, John Claggart, and Captain Vere as Jesus Christ, Lucifer, and God.
The protagonist in the novel is Billy Budd. The experiences that Billy undergoes throughout the novel parallel what Jesus Christ endured in his life. Melville characterizes Billy Budd as an innocent man physically and mentally. The first feature sailors would notice about Billy were his schoolboy features, with blond hair and blue eyes. His suave looks caused some people to refer to him as "the handsome sailor"(16). Most often sailors were scurvy men, quite often with diseases, who made no effort to uphold a handsome appearance. With his tanned complexion and sound build he resembles Hercules, one of the flawless Greek Gods of mythology (17). Billy's full name is William, but the sailors felt that the childish name, Billy, was more appropriate. Commonly only young innocent boys hold the name Billy, but the sailors see the man as an innocent boy. Billy's innocence sparked the Dankser to give Billy a nickname because "...whether in freak of patriarchal irony touching Billy's youth and athletic frame or for some other and more recondite reason, from the first in addressing him he [the Dansker] always substituted 'Baby' for 'Billy'"(35). The characteristics aforementioned verify Billy's innocent nature, just as Jesus Christ held the same innocent disposition. After Billy's capture from the Rights of Man, by impressment, he shows no remorse toward his old captain and shipmates for not protecting him. Billy, as well as Jesus, cannot hold a because their innocent nature renders them incapable ...
... middle of paper ...
...t pay for his sin. To abide by the law, Vere tells the jury "The prisoner's deed - with that alone we have to do"(69). When the jury convicts Billy, as they were strongly swayed by Vere, Captain Vere takes it upon himself to tell Billy of his demise. Melville does not touch on the scene much, but it is a warm sentimental scene with Vere acting as Billy's father and consoling him. Captain Vere symbolically stands as God.
The classic battle between the righteous and the reprobate comes alive with symbolism in Herman Melville's allegory Billy Budd, with Billy Budd, John Claggart, and Captain Vere being portrayed as Jesus Christ, Lucifer, and God.
Works Cited
Chase, Richard. Herman Melville: A Critical Study. New York: Hafner Publishing Company, 1971.
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories. Ed. Frederick Busch. New York: Penguin, 1986.
Thomas C. Foster in his work How to Read Literature Like a Professor argues that even though characters may display evil characteristics, their religious values overpower and express “themselves in connection with the [character’s] role within society” (Foster 125). Literary characters may display some of the same characteristics as Christ while accomplishing actions with “redemption, hope, or miracle” (132). Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby symbolically resembles a Christ figure—sacrificing himself to save Daisy from the law, outstretching his arms towards hope, and coming to West Egg to retrieve Daisy’s unworthy world.
In 1891, the novel, Billy Budd, was published by Herman Melville. Readers claim the novel is a masterpiece, holding controversy about certain characters, especially captain Vere. In 1971, Charles A Reich had written “The Tragedy of Billy Budd” showing that Captain Vere was wrongly accused. In 2002, Robert Martin had written “Is Vere a Hero?” to show that Vere is no hero. Both works support their reasons well using textual evidence, however Reich’s work is more persuasive than Martin’s.
While fighting the Dragon Beowulf shows feats of strength and courage that define him as a hero. The classical hero displays a special quality that separates him from the rest of
Herman Melville’s novels, with good reason, can be called masculine. Moby-Dick may, also with good reason, be called a man’s book and that Melville’s seafaring episode suggests a patriarchal, anti-feminine approach that adheres to the nineteenth century separation of genders. Value for masculinity in the nineteenth century America may have come from certain expected roles males were expected to fit in; I argue that its value comes from examining it not alone, but in relation to and in concomitance with femininity. As Richard H. Brodhead put it, Moby-Dick is “so outrageously masculine that we scarcely allow ourselves to do justice to the full scope of masculinism” (Brodhead 9). I concur with Brodhead in that remark, and that Melville’s use of flagrant masculinity serves as a vehicle in which femininity is brought on board The Pequod; femininity is inseparable from masculinity in Melville’s works, as staunchly masculine as they seem superficially.
In the beginning of the novel, Beowulf takes interest in the plight of Hrothgar, King of Denmark, and wants to help him fight Grendel. Grendel is a large monster that has been harassing members in the mead-hall of the Heorot. Beowulf owes Hrothgar a favor, due to the fact that Hrothgar saved his father in years past. Hrothgar is honored to have Beowulf attempt to fight the swamp monster, and decides to hold a feast in his name. When Grendel shows up to the feast, Beowulf illustrates his bravery by fighting Grendel without any armor. When Beowulf wins the battle by ripping Grendel’s arm off, everyone in the mead-hall praises Beowulf for his acts of courage. In this scene, Beowulf proves that he is a hero by fighting off a monster that everyone else was afraid of. This made him look
Once Father Mapple speaks about Jonah and the whale, it becomes clear that Herman Melville's 1851 novel has a connection to the Bible and Christianity. Melville fills Moby Dick with several biblical allusions, and the novel's main characters are linked symbolically to figures in the Bible. Melville alludes to the Bible in Moby Dick to mock Christianity. He uses his primary characters of Ishmael, Ahab, and Moby Dick to make God seem like a judgmental being who has no pity on sinners unless they obey him. He also portrays faithful Christians as outsiders who
The first comparison is how they are both fighting for a good cause, and I mean that they are trying to protect people, and doing the right thing. In the epic story Beowulf is fighting to destroy the monster that is eating all of Hrothgars men in the mead hall. Beowulf defeats the monster and seeks all other monsters that try to promote evil and do evil things. The soldiers do the same as they try to defeat the enemy, promote goodness, and stop the suffering of other people that do or do not deserver having the suffering that they are receiving. The soldiers also are trying to promote peace which I think that war is our modern day monster that we are trying to avoid.
Herman Melville wrote numerous short stories while, using different literary techniques. Melville brilliantly uses symbolism in his story Bartleby the Scrivener. Melville uses Bartleby as a reference to a Christ-like figure. Melville does this to test the narrator that all people are going to have a hard test in life and that no one is exempted from this. Melville’s throws symbolism all throughout this story. He shows how Bartleby is compared to other people at his work and how Bartleby becomes the ultimate test for the narrator. Melville uses clear symbolism to portray Bartleby as a Christ-like figure, proving to the narrator that there is no easy life for anyone.
cheap and easy method of providing tobacco users a manageable product soon led to widespread use in the western world. This attitude soon began to change, however, as researchers began publishing reports on the ill effects of smoking and tobacco use.
Herman Melville, like all other American writers of the mid and late nineteenth century, was forced to reckon with the thoughts and writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson celebrated the untapped sources of beauty, strength, and nobility hidden within each individual. Where Emerson was inclined to see each human soul as a beacon of light, however, Melville saw fit to describe and define the darkness, the bitter and harsh world of reality that could dim, diffuse, and even extinguish light. Each man wrote about life in specific terms, while pointing toward human nature in general. The problem of evil paradoxically separates and unites both authors. Emerson looked inward and Melville pushed outward, each searching, each trying to effect change. The problem of evil remains ever-present, driving both men to reinvest in understanding the interconnectedness, the interdependency of human relations. Though "Melville alternately praised and damned 'this Plato who talks thro' his nose' ", Emerson's influence direct or indirect helped to shape Melville's ideology and thus his fiction (Sealts 82).
Evil is something of which imagery is constantly found throughout the novel. The first being the whale: whose color is white. Once again, this is a concealed theme. At first thought the persecuted white whale would make people think that it is an image of innocenc...
Dr. Alois Alzheimer made the decision to utilize what was a new staining technique on a sample from a deceased patient. The sample was of the patient’s cerebral cortex. Upon staining, he noted what appeared to be abnormal for the current findings. The nerve cells were bunched up, having the appearance of knots. Within these bunches of nerve cells were also what is now known as plaques. Later, in a medical journal, Dr. Alzheimer, discussed his hypothesis of the bundles and plaques being the cause for the patient’s memory loss (Tagarelli, 2006).
Alzheimer’s affects the minds ability to function, and only worsens over time, to the point were you have to be cared for hourly. While there is not a cure for it, an interest by scientists sparks the desire to find one. The topic appealed to me because while it seems that Alzheimer’s doesn’t have much depth, it is actually a very complicated.
There is still no known fact on how the Alzheimer’s disease process begins. They seem to think that the damage to the brain starts a decade or more before problems become evident. During the preclinical stage of Alzheimer’s disease, people are asymptomatic, but unfortunately there are toxic changes taking place in the brain. Abnormal deposits of proteins form amyloid plaques and tau tangles throughout the brain, causing the once-healthy neurons to work less efficiently. Over time, neurons lose the ...
Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, is believed by some to be the greatest literary works of all time. The book takes place in the 1840s and seems greatly advanced for its time. Herman Melville uses many literary techniques that bring about severe imagery as well as insight and education to the readers. One concept that is conveyed in Moby Dick is the journey itself. This is broken into the physical journey, the spiritual journey, and life’s journey.