Billy Budd as a tragic hero

ByMy Sansar -August 19, 2017

Billy Budd as a tragic hero

div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"> Coming to Billy Budd, we find that the hero here is a young, handsome sailor who wins our admiration by his good looks, his utter simplicity of nature, and his absolute goodness. Melville himself refers to this sailor as the “hero” of the novel, though not a conventional hero. Billy’s very good looks, simplicity and goodness prove to be the cause of his undoing because these excellent qualities and attributes of his give rise to feelings of ire, envy and despair in a man called Claggart who becomes antagonistic of him and tries to ruin him. But the hero Billy Budd suffers also from a certain vocal defect, which contributes his undoing. In the novel Billy Budd, Melville writes:

div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"> Though our Handsome sailor had as much of masculine beauty as one can expect anywhere to see, nevertheless, like the beautiful woman in one of Hawthorne’s minor tales, there was just one thing amiss in him. No visible blemish indeed, as with the lady; no, but an occasional liability to a vocal defect. Though in the hour of elemental uproar or peril he was everything that a sailor should be, yet under sudden provocation of strong heart-feeling his voice, otherwise singularly musical, as if expressive of the harmony within, was apt to develop an organic hesitancy , in fact more or less of a stutter or even worse. In this particular Billy was a striking instance that the aren interferer, the envious marplot of Eden, still has more or less to do with every human consignment to this planet of earth. In every case, one way or another he is sure to slip in his little card, as much as to remind us. I too have a hand here. The avowal of such an imperfection in the Handsome sailor should be evidence not alone that he is not presented as a conventional hero, but also that the story in which he is the main figure is no romance. (17-18)

div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-indent: .5in;"> The above extract depicts the character of Billy Budd in which if he is under some sudden provocation or under the pressure of some strong feeling or under some emotional stress, Billy would find himself unable to express himself coherently in words. On such moments, then, this inability to speak properly would prove a serious drawback to him. This vocal defect is precisely the reason why Billy cannot defend himself when he is accused by Claggart of a serious charge to his very face and in the presence of Captain Vere. Unable to defend himself in words, he hits Claggart, giving him a serous blow, which kills the man. Billy is then put a trial for having fatally assaulted his superior officer, and is sentenced to death. The execution of Billy fills us with deep pity. A promising career has been cut short by certain unexpected developments, ands circumstances such is thee tragedy of Billy.

It is noteworthy that fate plays no role in the tragedy of Billy. In ancient classical tragedy, fate sometimes played a decisive role in bringing out the tragedy of the hero In Shakespearian drama also fate plays a substantial role though not a decisive role, but in the case hero himself is largely to blame for the disaster that overtakes him. In the novel Billy Budd sailor we are not made even conscious of power as fate. It is true that, after Billy has (unintentionally) killed Claggart, Captain Vere says to him: “fated boy, what have you done!” But this remark only shows that captain Vere gets the feeling that Billy himself is not to blame for what has happened, and that it was the falsity of the charge brought against him by Claggart, which provoked Billy to such an extent, that he reacted by giving Claggart a blow under a sudden impulse. The real cause of the tragedy is Claggart. The author draws the character of this villain in some detail. Claggart is a man by nature wicked. He appears to be almost a personification of evil. Evil is in born in him. Evil becomes a mania with him Billy has done no harm to him at all. In fact, it is Billy’s very harmlessness an innocence which fills Claggart with envy anger, this gives rise to a feeling of antagonism within him towards Billy. Billy’s exceptional good looks and his absolute goodness, untouched by malice, heighten Claggart’s feelings of envy and antagonism. It is in order to give an outlet to his feelings of envy and antagonism that Claggart fabricates a charge against Billy in order to destroy him. If the master-at-arms had been a normal officer on board the ship, he would have been a source of encouragement to Billy instead of becoming the cause of Billy’s destruction. Of course, as already pointed out, Billy’s inability to defend himself against the charge because of his vocal handicap has its share in precipitating the tragedy; but Claggart is the man whose evil-mindedness is mainly responsible for what happens. And then, of course, there is the role of captain Vere who puts Billy in trial before a court-martial and who then urges the court-martial of declare Billy guilty and to impose upon him the maximum punishment which the law prescribes. It is captain Vere who is responsible for the sentence of death against Billy. A less rigid disciplinarian might have viewed the case of Billy differently, and might have shown some leniency. In short, the entire tragedy of Billy is man-made. If at all fate has any hand, it is to be seen in the vocal defect from which Billy suffers. Melville himself attributes this vocal defect in Billy to the workings of Satan, “The arch interfere, and the envious marplot of Eden.”

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