For his own part, Billy's own desires do not play a significant role it is his power to excite desire in others that is key. Few now debate the frankly homoerotic content of Billy Budd only the most reactionary of high school English teachers deny that male-male desire is a driving theme in the novel. Melville devotes an incredible amount of attention to Billy's physical characteristics. He does not know his own strength later, this excessive strength will doom both Claggart and Billy. 3) Billy is also physically powerful, as we learn from the story of Red Whiskers. Billy exudes a simplicity and goodness that has a magical effect on the tempers of the other men. Lieutenant Ratcliff chooses Billy even before all the other men have come on deck for inspection, and because of the quality of his pick he feels no need to take any others. 2) His appeal to others is direct and immediate.
We are told that Billy in the nude could pose as Adam before the fall. The narrator calls him "welkin-eyed," meaning that his eyes were an intense, sky-colored shade of blue again and again, we are told of Billy's athletic and beautiful body. 1) Like the Handsome Sailor, Billy is physically beautiful. Melville lists three important characteristics of the handsome sailor, and Billy exhibits all of them. The Handsome Sailor is a motif of the novella. Part of Claggart's hatred comes not despite Billy's goodness, but because of it. Claggart is likened by Melville to Satan, and in literatary studies he is often compared to Iago. There is something inherently evil in Claggart: "What was the matter with the master-at-arms?" The question is never completely answered. Although Melville hints at some of Claggart's motivations and paints a convincing psychological portrait of hatred, some part of Claggart's hate must necessarily go unexplained. Evilīilly's innocence finds its counterpart in John Claggart's depravity. Innocent to the deceptions of civilized life, he is an idealized version of manhood and humanity.
Billy is likened to Adam before the Fall he is also called a barbarian, in a positive sense of the word, more than once. Lacking any wiles, he falls victim to Claggart's malice and treachery.īilly is also an example of Melville's fascination with ideas of man in a state of perfect nature, the Noble Savage. Billy's innocence is a central part of his beauty and charisma, but it is also part of what dooms him. Innocence, embodied in Billy, is paired off against evil and depravity, embodied in Claggart. Buy Study Guide Innocence, and the Noble Savageīilly Budd's innocence, which reaches the point of naïveté, is one of the points repeatedly stressed in the narrative.
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