Billy Budd

Billy Budd is Herman Melville's last work, and it was finished shortly before his death in 1891 when the author was 72. It was first published in 1924, helping to reestablish the critical reputation that Melville now has received.

One has to remember that Melville was an artist who wrote and published Moby-Dick when he was 31. Though the book is heralded as a masterpiece today (and rightfully so), Melville enjoyed no fitting recognition during his lifetime, spending nearly his last two decades in New York City as a customs inspector.

For an author of an unquestionable masterpiece and numerous other excellent literary efforts to go through so much of his life in silence had to have been a great burden. To see how Melville might have dealt with the life forces that created his frustrated career, it is instructive to look to Billy Budd for the writer's final pronouncement.

It is quite possible to read the work as a symbolic tale cry-ing out that evil is defeat in the world and that natural goodness (here in the character of Billy Budd) is immune to actions of men (Captain Vere and the Indomitable crew). This statement appears to be what Melville held faith in during his last years: that his apparent defeat at the hands of fate could still be a victory. Because Melville wrote Billy Budd, he triumphed in the end.

The life of Melville must be stressed just a bit further be-fore entering into the text. The author's late years were endured in obscurity and silence. He was faithf

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t) score with the evil bully Claggart. Yet Billy is also a martyr: he will have to die for his sins (and by proxy the entire ship's sins) and therefore takes on Christ-like dimensions. Vere's troubled conscience bears out the observation that "the condemned one suffered less than he who had mainly effected the condemnation" (Widmer 35). In discussing moral consequences, Widmer has a clear view of the book's themes. In terms of dramatic critical observation, Widmer seems to have read a book different from the one under current consideration. "Billy Budd stands as a curiously undramatic work... The three main characters die, but not one appears remorseful. defiant or in any other way transformed" (Widmer 43). After reading that opinion one can grant Widmer his theory with the character of Claggart: he is evil personified and for him there will be no remorse. If we allow Billy to portray a Christ-like presence, his death will (and does) represent a certain serene acceptance of his fate. (It would be wise for Widmer to realize in this instance that this lack of "action" is far from undramatic. If anything, his attitude toward death and his execution is all the more moving because of this behavior.) When Melville writes of "the rare b

Category: Literature - B