The novella Billy Budd was written by the American novelist Herman Melville. Throughout the story, the reader is repeatedly introduced to the concepts of morals, and integrity. Melville himself referred to this idea as “The Art of Telling the Truth.” Billy demonstrated the injustice for the common man, as well as the honorability of accepting the consequences for ones actions. Melville argues in his three final chapters that the common man receives no justice in society, and the farther time passes, the more injustice one receives.
The first glimpse of injustice that the reader is introduced to happens early in the story, is when the reader learns that Billy “had entered the King’s service, having been impressed on the Narrow seas from a homeward-bound English merchantman into a seventy-four outward bound, H.M.S. Bellipotent” (Melville 2470). Ironically enough, before Billy is “impressed” on the Bellipotent, he arrives back on a ship named “The Rights of Man,” signifying that by returning and leaving on the Bellipotent he is abandoning or losing his rights as a common man. This event is the beginning of unfortunate events for Billy, often called Baby Budd. Billy is described as having a “lingering smooth face all but feminine in purity” (Melville 2473). A young and youthful Billy was impressed upon the Bellipotent because he gave an impression of vulnerability and innocence. It is this perception of Billy that ultimately leads to his fate, which is described by Carolyn Karcher in her criticism of the novella. In Karcher’s review and critique of the story, “Title of the Critique,” Karcher proves the idea that Billy was a “Handsome Sailor, idol of his shipmates, and innocent victim of a false accuser” (347). Because of these trait...
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... a fatherly connection toward Billy. He had no remorse toward his decision to execute Billy because he believed that that was the only decision he could make. Where his remorse lied was in the fact that the young boy that he care so deeply for, in a fatherly way, received no justice. It was that the same boy whom he groomed to be like himself, so young, so full of innocence and youthfulness was hung, out of precedent.
Herman Melville believed deeply in his notion that the common-man receives no justice, only the elite member in a society. Perhaps his belief originated in the society that he lived in, or the situations such as a Civil War, that impacted his viewpoint. Throughout this story, the reader is repeatedly introduced to the consistent idea that the common-man is on his own, and the situations that he encompasses are distorted and augmented as time passes.
This world and its beliefs provide Billy with a way to escape the mental prison of his mind where even the sound of sirens caused him great distress. From the chronology to the diminishing reaction to the important moments in his life, Billy’s life becomes completely chaotic and meaningless, but he would not prefer any other alternative because this was the only one which was mentally
There are key quotes throughout this novel that display the imprisonment that the father went through. Near the end of the story, the narrator states
Now Billy's life has been quite stressful, losing his father at such a young age and in the middle of a war. Then after this father's death Billy actually had to go off to war. And his wife, I mean she was no Marilyn Monroe and it wasn't like he was in love with her. Billy only marri...
There are many ways to decide what makes a man guilty. In an ethical sense, there is more to guilt than just committing the crime. In Charles Brockden Browns’ Wieland, the reader is presented with a moral dilemma: is Theodore Wieland guilty of murdering his wife and children, even though he claims that the command came from God, or is Carwin guilty because of his history of using persuasive voices, even though his role in the Wieland family’s murder is questionable? To answer these questions, one must consider what determines guilt, such as responsibility, motives, consequences, and the act itself. No matter which view is taken on what determines a man’s guilt, it can be concluded that Wieland bears the fault in the murder of Catharine Wieland and her children.
Baldwin's mind seems to be saturated with anger towards his father; there is a cluster of gloomy and heartbreaking memories of his father in his mind. Baldwin confesses that "I could see him, sitting at the window, locked up in his terrors; hating and fearing every living soul including his children who had betrayed him" (223). Baldwin's father felt let down by his children, who wanted to be a part of that white world, which had once rejected him. Baldwin had no hope in his relationship with his father. He barely recalls the pleasurable time he spent with his father and points out, "I had forgotten, in the rage of my growing up, how proud my father had been of me when I was little" (234). The cloud of anger in Baldwin's mind scarcely lets him accept the fact that his father was not always the cold and distant person that he perceived him to be. It is as if Baldwin has for...
... To read the story as either accepting or resisting an ethical dilemma is perhaps debatable. The point of the story may be to state man's need to punish and retaliate with injury through means that may be befogged. The reader may be upset with the death of Billy Budd not for the seemingly unjust killing of a sympathetic character, but for its illustration of a society coming apart at the seams; one which doesn't necessarily make sense considering human nature, but one that is so closely linked to social systems, it is doubtful that it could ever be changed.
Captain Vere, despite having paternal feelings towards Billy Budd, soon realizes the decision facing him. After Claggart’s last breathe, “ ‘Fated boy,’ breathed Captain Vere in tone so low as to be almost a whisper, ‘what have you done!’ ” (350). Vere’s paternal feelings can be seen when he says “Fated boy”. The fact Captain Vere whispers this implies the emotions he is feeling. He realizes the severity of Billy’s actions and reproaches him as a father would a child...
This can be seen in how the narrator and other lawyers never want to do anything that harms themselves or their reputation. Melville shows us this side of the lawyers when they come to the narrator to help rid themselves of Bartleby and they state, “Every body is concerned; clients are leaving the offices; some fears are entertained of a mob; something you must do, and that without delay.” Then, the narrator decides to help not out of the goodness of his heart but because he is “fearful then of being exposed to the papers.” All the lawyers have no true concerns of what happens to Bartleby as long as he is out of their way. This helps to give the reader some insight into how the law is there to attempt to keep people formed to the society intended where everyone has there place to help society run smoothly and if someone doesn’t conform to this society, they are told that they are breaking the law and must be imprisoned. Therefore, the lawyers decide to call the police on Bartleby and have him thrown in jail for nothing other than his
Human nature is a conglomerate perception which is the dominant liable expressed in the short story of “A Tell-Tale Heart”. Directly related, Edgar Allan Poe displays the ramifications of guilt and how it can consume oneself, as well as disclosing the nature of human defense mechanisms, all the while continuing on with displaying the labyrinth of passion and fears of humans which make a blind appearance throughout the story. A guilty conscience of one’s self is a pertinent facet of human nature that Edgar Allan Poe continually stresses throughout the story. The emotion that causes a person to choose right from wrong, good over bad is guilt, which consequently is one of the most ethically moral and methodically powerful emotion known to human nature. Throughout the story, Edgar Allan Poe displays the narrator to be rather complacent and pompous, however, the narrator establishes what one could define as apprehension and remorse after committing murder of an innocent man. It is to believe that the narrator will never confess but as his heightened senses blur the lines between real and ...
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories. Ed. Frederick Busch. New York: Penguin, 1986.
The author’s purpose is to also allow the audience to understand the way the guards and superintendent felt towards the prisoners. We see this when the superintendent is upset because the execution is running late, and says, “For God’s sake hurry up, Francis.” And “The man ought to have been dead by this time.” This allows the reader to see the disrespect the authority has towards the prisoners.
...he theme of guilt that builds within Briony character and writing. The structure of limitations provided by McEwan’s highlights the emotions of Briony herself. As the critic Finney addresses the narrative form, McEwan presents the corruption of the negative appearance displayed in the writing of the narrator her self. Briony uses the novel to atone for her sins, in a way to make up for the foolish acts she as committed, giving the readers sympathy to forgiver for her actions. The inability to achieve atonement is demonstrated within the novel continuously highlights the element of guilt. The attempt at atonement helped Briony, which alludes the over all theme that the ability to achieve atonement is in the hands of the beholder. Untimely, the consequences amplified the writing style that conveyed the understanding of the selfish actions that tore apart two lovers.
From the beginning, Billy Budd awed his companions with the strength of his love for life. When he was taken from the ship, The Rights of Man, Captain Graveling became disturbed at the thought of losing such a man, saying "Beg pardon, but you don't understand, Lieutenant. See here now. Before I shipped that young fellow, my forecastle was a rat-pit of quarrels. It was black times, I tell you aboard the Rights here. I was worried to that degree my pipe had no comfort for me. But Billy came, and it was like a Catholic priest striking peace in an Irish shindy...a virtue went out of him, sugaring the sour ones." Clearly from the start, we are made aware of Billy's goodness, his ability to bring peace to the roughest of men. He is likened to a Priest, and portrayed as exuding a sweetness which seems c...
Natural philosophers of every century of human existence have asked what we owe to each other, society or government. In The Origin of Civil Society, Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that the only natural form of duty is to one’s family, and all other obligations are based on agreement (57). Henry David Thoreau, in 1849, wrote in Resistance to Civil Government (sometimes known as Civil Disobedience), “it is not a man's duty, as a matter of course, to devote himself to the eradication of any, even the most enormous wrong; he may still properly have other concerns to engage him; but it is his duty, at least, to wash his hands of it, and, if he gives it no thought longer, not to give it practically his support” (143). This sort of conflict, which has accompanied all men at the great changes in society, is what drives conflict in Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener. Melville, like the Byzantine architects, crafts a work of art that studies a microcosm of the macrocosm. That is to say, by looking at the relationship between two people, Melville is able to explore the larger context around them, specifically the radical change of society in the mid-19th century. Like Thoreau, Bartleby’s famous word, “I would prefer not to,” send a shockwave through contemporary expectations and give rise to how a person approaches a situation. Bartleby and Thoreau are both transcendentalists, and look to return to a Rousseauian state of nature. They have both arrived there after a journey of self-examination – most definitely in Thoreau’s case, and most probably in Bartleby’s – and their non-conformist attitudes raise questions of what is expected of people with regard to their duty to society and each other. Bartleby in particular makes the nameless...
The reason the narrator was compelled to convey his story was so that others could read, evaluate, and agree with him that his actions were that of a man of perfectly sound mind caught in a storm of unfortunate coincidences. By penning the tale of his crimes, he wishes to have the reader alleviate his conscience. Upon carefully contemplating his tale, it is regrettable nobody would be able to tell him what he hopes to hear as he is clearly the opposite. He must instead deal with what he has done as he heads towards the gallows.