Bill budd
Bill buddHerman Melville’s Billy Budd is a story about true goodness. It entails the conflict of good and evil, but more than that it portrays innocence in its’ most purest form.
Innocence is an exploitable commodity. While this is universally recognized, there are many different ways people confront it. Some people choose to embrace and protect it. While others choose to abuse it and corrupt it. Those who choose the latter are evilplain and simple. By making this choice they are reflecting not upon the innocent, but upon themselves. This reflection is humanity in its darkest configuration.
Billy Budd and John Claggart are opposing forces. Billy Budd who is described as “strength and beauty. Tales of his prowess recited. Ashore he the champion, afloat the spokesman; on every suitable occasion always foremost.” John Claggart, a man “in whom was the mania of an evil nature, not engendered by vicious training or corrupting books or licentious living but born with him and innate, in short ‘a depravity according to nature.’” These two people who are clearly on opposite sides of the spectrum contrast one another in a plethora of ways. Where Billy is sweet, John is bitter. Where Billy is na�ve, John is knowledgeable. Where Billy is content, John is jealous. Lastly, where Billy is good, John is bad.
The ugliness that results in the death of both men portrays the triumph of sinister forces over the meek....
To view the complete essay, you be registered.