Billy Budd: Conclusion

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 to, him and tries to ruin him. But the hero Billy Budd suffers also from a certain vocal defect which contributes to his undoing under some sudden provocation or under the pressure of some strong feelings or under some emotional stress, Billy would find himself unable to express himself coherently in words. On such occasions he would begin to stammer or stutter .At 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 severe blow which kills that man. Billy is then put on 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 off by certain unexpected developments. Such is the tragedy of Billy. It is noteworthy that fate plays no role in the tragedy of Billy. In ancient classical tragedy, fate sometime played a decisive role, because here the hero himself is largely to blame for the disaster which overtakes him. In the novel before us, we are not made even conscious on such as 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 here 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 had provoked Billy to such an extent that he had reacted by giving Claggart a blow under a sudden impulse. The real cause of the tragedy here is Claggart. The author has drawn 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 inborn 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 and innocence which fill Claggart with envy and give rise to a feeling of antagonism in him towards Billy. Billy's exceptional good looks and his absolute goodness, untouched by the least 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 where evil mindedness is mainly responsible for what happens. And then, of course there is the role of Captain Vere who puts Billy on trial before a court martial and who then urges the court – martial to declare Billy guilty and to impose upon him the maximum punishment which the law prescribes. It is Captain Vere who is responsible for the sentences of death against Billy. A less rigid disciplinarian might have viewed the death case 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 interferer, and the envious marplot of Eden."

We mourn the death of Billy, but the tragedy in this novel falls equally upon Captain Vere who has the mind to comprehend it, as well as the heart to feel. This novel then has not one but two tragic heroes. While Billy is a humble sailor, Captain Vere certainly makes his tragedy a little more painful, even though Billy Budd too is descended from noble ancestors.


The tragedy of Captain Vere lies in the fact that, although he is convinced of the essential innocence of Billy, he at the same feels compelled to enforce the military law strictly against Billy on a charge of having assaulted his superior officer and having brought about his death, though unintentionally .Captain Vere's immediate reaction to Claggart's death is that " it is the divine judgment on Ananias," and that Claggart's has been "struck dead by an angel of God." However, in the same breath Captain Vere also says that the angel who has struck the villain dead must himself be hanged. Thus, although captain Vere perceives the hand of God in the death of Claggart, he yet feels it obligatory upon himself to see that Billy does not escape the punishment prescribed by the law for the offence which has committed. The court martial feels inclined to show some clemency in dealing with Billy, but captain Vere is strongly opposed to any such consideration being shown to the accused. Any leniency shown to Billy might give the ships crew the feeling that the officers are afraid of enforcing the law. Any leniency might therefore cause damage to the discipline on the ship. Captain Vere goes so far as to tell the court martial that Billy is innocent in the eyes of God and that on the Judgement day, Billy would be honorably acquitted of the charge of murder. And yet Captain Vere finds it necessary to have Billy convicted and sentenced to death. Captain Vere has here to choose between divine justice and secular justice; between moral justice and legal justice, between private morality and public morality, between the private conscience and the imperial conscience; and Captain Vere in each case chooses the latter. But the choice thus made by him robs him completely of his peace of mind afterwards. Up to the point of Billy's conviction and the pronouncement of the sentence against him, Captain Vere shows no signs of any inner conflict or any mental reservations or any uncertainty whatever. Once the sentence has been pronounced, however, Captain Vere feels overwhelmed by his feeling that in absolute terms, a grave injustice has been done to Billy. He now holds a private interview with Billy and explains to him the reasons why Billy had to be convicted and sentenced to death. Captain Vere has allowed his private conscience and his moral principles to be pushed into the background by his official sense of duty and by his oath of allegiance to his king. Of course, he now tries to soothe Billy's feelings and his own feelings by dwelling upon the rationale behind the arguments which he had advanced against Billy during the trial, but he cannot really achieve any mental peace or serenity. He continues to be haunted by the thought of the injustice which has been done to Billy, so that even at the time of his death he is heard repeatedly murmuring the name of Billy Budd. Even at the time of his death Captain Vere is not able to forget the Handsome Sailor, the innocent Billy, who had been hanged to satisfy the requirements of the military law at the cost of the law of God. Such then is Captain Vere's tragedy. He certainly does not die a happy man; and he like Billy, wins our deepest sympathy.