Essay on the Dilemma of Billy Budd -- Billy Budd Essays

The Dilemma of billystick Budd Herman Mellvilles nightstick Budd is and extremely divisive novel when one considers the dissension it has generated. The criticism has fundamentally focused around the argument of acceptance vs. resistance. On the one flock we can read the story as accepting the hanging of Billy Budd as the necessary ends of justice. We can read Veres condemnation as a necessary military action performed in the name of preserving order alongside the Indomitable. On the other hand, we can argue that Billys execution as the greatest example of injustice. The question has been asked if Veres conduct is right or wrong. In any case, since Billy Budd is an respectable text, it is very odd that there is an absence of the emotion guilt. Billy Budd is a story about two murders. Billy kills Claggart and Vere (although indirectly, the conclusion is ultimately his) kills Budd. Neither of the murderers demonstrate guilt in the form of remorse. For a narrative that tries to put the reader in a moral and ethical position, it is ironic that the characters themselves dont exhibit what would seem most ethical. ... ... To read the story as either accepting or resisting an ethical dilemma is perhaps debatable. The baksheesh of the story whitethorn be to state mans need to punish and strike back with injury through means that may be befogged. The reader may be upset with the death of Billy Budd not for the seemingly unfair killing of a sympathetic character, but for its illustration of a caller coming apart at the seams one which doesnt necessarily make horse sense considering human nature, but one that is so closely linked to sociable systems, it is doubtful that it could ever be changed.