758 Melville, Herman
to tales of recent uprisings, and this fear leads to
stricter punishments for mutineers. While captains
feared their crews because of their potential for vio-
lence, the crews also feared captains because of the
violence that captains could practice against them.
These two aspects of mutiny play into the central
plotline of this tale.
Melville describes Billy Budd, the main charac-
ter, as a beautiful, loyal, powerful sailor. His looks
and manner are in stark contrast with the taxing,
violent life of a naval warship. Yet Billy proves on
more than one occasion that he is quite capable of
thriving. Billy’s strength and innocence represent
the two sometimes conflicting sides of his personal-
ity. Captain Graveling of Rights of Man is sad to
let Billy go when the sailor joins Bellipotent. Before
parting, Graveling shares a story in which Billy’s two
sides are aptly shown. Once before, another sailor
attempted to push Billy around. At first, Billy tried
to reason with the other man, “Red Whiskers,” but
he hit Billy, and Billy retaliated with similar violence
and gave the man a sound beating. Afterward, the
man came to “love” Billy Budd, just as all the other
crewmembers did. Most often, Billy leans toward
violence when he cannot articulate his thoughts and
feelings; when he grows flustered, he suffers from
awkward and intense bouts of stuttering. This qual-
ity is partially responsible for Billy’s downfall.
After Billy transfers to Bellipotent, he is accepted
by the majority of the crew. However, violence sur-
faces again in the form of a punishment given to
another crew member. The man fails to show up for
his post and is lashed for it. Billy is “horrified” by
the punishment, and he resolves to never do any-
thing that would cause him to earn the same fate.
Afterward, though, Billy continually finds himself
getting in minor trouble for light offenses, so the
fear of a violent lashing constantly hangs over his
head. Violence eventually comes to Billy due in
part to the workings of John Claggart, the ship’s
master-at-arms. Claggart has not taken to Billy and,
for some reason, bears malice toward him. Melville
suggests that Claggart’s jealousy of Billy’s innate
heroism is the cause of bad will, and Claggart shows
intelligence through the way in which he deals with
Billy. He is not overtly violent toward Billy, but
treats Billy kindly, to the point that the newer crew
member is surprised to find that Claggart bears him
any ill will at all. For example, one day at lunch, Billy
accidentally spills his soup on the deck, and the mess
runs right at Claggart’s feet. Claggart refers to the
accident as “handsome,” playing on the generally
accepted view of Billy; the crew laughs and the inci-
dent passes, but Claggart does not forget it.
Claggart concocts a plan to use the fear of mutiny
to enact violence toward Billy. One night on the ship,
Billy is clandestinely summoned to a remote area,
where he is asked by an anonymous figure to “coop-
erate” and is offered money to do so. Although Billy
doesn’t understand what is happening, he does know
that something is wrong and he threatens the figure
with violence. Soon after, Claggart goes to Captain
Vere with warnings of a mutiny, citing Billy as ring-
leader. When Billy is told of the accusations against
him, he immediately begins to stutter. Unable to find
words to defend himself, he turns and hits Claggart
in the forehead, killing him almost instantly. This
forces Vere to take action against Billy, and a drum-
head court is appointed. Fear of mutiny is used to
invoke a quick judgment against him; even though
the lieutenants think the trial is a sham, they refuse
to speak out against Vere because this too would be
seen as mutinous. Billy is found guilty not of the
attempt to mutiny but of the act of killing Claggart
and is hung the next morning at dawn.
Violence is a central theme in “Billy Budd,
Sailor.” It provides the basis for the major turning
points of the story; the fear of violence and the
manipulation of that fear move the story toward
its climax. Billy’s inability to avoid violence when
words fail him leads to tragedy, though Melville also
shows that Claggart’s manipulation of fear is a form
of violence as well.
Ronald DavisWork in “Billy Budd, sailor”
The majority of the narrative of “Billy Budd, Sailor”
takes place within the confines of “work.” When
the story begins, Billy, the main character, works
aboard Rights of Man, a merchant vessel, and he
is somewhat of a legend for his work ethic. Mel-
ville compares his working silhouette to that of
Greek warriors because Billy is extraordinary in
both appearance and output. Soon, he is drafted