Billy Budd, Sailor

Billy and Claggart must eventually clash, and the novella’s major tension surrounds what the nature of their conflict will be. After Billy strikes and kills Claggart—after an unsuccessful attempt to defend himself—he says, “[c]ould I have used my tongue I would not have struck him. But he foully lied to my face and in presence of my captain, and I had to say something, and I could only say it with a blow, God help me!” (68). Billy’s history with resorting to violence when he cannot defend himself is discussed earlier in the novella with Red Whiskers on Rights-of-Man. Though Billy is a figure representing purity and innocence, Billy resorts to harming others when he feels cornered and unable to speak. Melville hence critiques the military structures that prevent lower ranks from speaking out, something that, the novella suggests, ultimately leads to injustice and to danger for all, including officers.    

After Claggart’s death, the tension is replaced by the question of how Vere will respond. Vere is bookish and dreamy, but he is also inflexibly devoted to order and duty. After watching one of his sailors kill another, although it is not intentional, Vere’s duty is clear. In this scene, his role is similar to that of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who presided over the mock trial and real execution of Christ. He doesn’t want to follow through with the demands of his office but has no choice. He feels that he is on the verge of a mental health crisis, and his only respite is to choose duty over his feelings. The narrator highlights the porous ethical borders when he asks, “Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity” (64).

Vere convenes a jury, but this is not meant to suggest that he expects the other officers on the jury to change his mind, or to argue compellingly on Billy’s behalf. The law leaves no doubt as to what Billy’s punishment should be. Therefore, with the matter of the court serving as due diligence and propriety, the verdict passes, leaving Vere in a tumultuous state. He has done nothing but uphold the literal instructions of the Mutiny Act, which was created to aid Captains during difficult decisions. Melville therefore suggests that the Mutiny Act is an injustice. In this case, it does not allow for the mitigating context surrounding Claggart’s death to have any influence, but the Mutiny Act serves its purpose—it punishes a man accused of mutiny, after he kills his accuser. The law dictates that Billy’s status as Claggart’s murderer cannot be viewed differently than if he were actually an enemy combatant who had killed one of the Bellipotent sailors. Melville suggests that war is a massive show of force that sacrifices individuals on behalf of the state. This highlights The Struggle Between Morality and Lawfulness.

Vere hedges his bets, telling himself that God will give Billy his proper reward, even if the law forbids it on earth. It is never in doubt that Vere’s conscience torments him over Billy’s fate, but his conscience is a luxury that is irrelevant in terms of jurisprudence. In one of the novella’s ethical dilemmas, Vere must contemplate the nature of his various duties, particularly as they come into conflict. His duty to the British Navy and to his subordinates is clear: The law says Billy must die by hanging. His duty to God is more ambivalent. If Vere accepts that Billy’s death is part of God’s plan, then he is doing his duty, even if that means executing a man whom he would rather defend and spare. Vere, however, wonders if he owes Billy something, outside of being his Captain and a somewhat affectionate acquaintance.

Once Billy is in holding, the novella’s religious element clearly comes to the forefront of the narrative. When Vere tells Billy the verdict, the narrative does not portray the details of the conversation. Rather than share the conversation, Melville recounts the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, his only son. This places Billy as a son Vere cares for but must sacrifice for the greater good of the law.  

The chaplain’s inability to help Billy is ironic. The chaplain represents the divine blessing upon the enterprise of war. He is a reminder that God is on their side, no matter what they are asked to do. The chaplain tries to comfort Billy with talk of salvation, but there is no need: “Stooping over, he kissed on the fair cheek his fellow man, a felon in martial law, one whom though on the confines of death he felt he could never convert to a dogma; nor for all that did he fear for his future” (82). At this point, Vere is essentially an emissary for war itself. He is diligent and faithful even though he wishes his duty did not require such difficulties from him.

By the time he dies, Billy is one of the only principal characters who is not suffering. He appears better suited to be a sacrifice than anything else. He blesses Captain Vere at the moment of his greatest peril. In the Biblical allegory, this subverts the moment in which Christ questioned God, rather than blessing him, asking if He had forsaken him. Even after he stops breathing, his corpse is calm on the rope, which will lead to a brief rumor of his resurrection in the final chapters.