Ambiguous Morality In Billy Budd

The Conflict Between Individuality and Society: An Analysis of Ambiguous Morality in Billy Budd, Sailor
Capital punishment and mandatory military service, two major political issues that are still debated to this day. Both, at their core, boil down to one question. Are the rights of an individual worth less than the survival of a society? Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor follows Billy Budd, a young and naïve sailor during his impressment aboard the Bellipotent, a British warship manned by Captain Vere, during the Napoleonic Wars. Billy Budd is taken from the aptly named merchant ship the Rights-of-Man and dropped into the brutal reality of life in the British Navy. While he manages his situation well, he attracts the ill intentions of

The story begins with Billy being taken from the Rights-of-Man, an obvious symbol for his individual rights, to the Bellipotent, where he has no rights of his own. In his newfound military service, he is subjected to grueling labour and harsh conditions, which he takes in stride. The day after he boards the warship Billy sees for the first time the brutal subjugation of one of his fellow sailors in the form of a public lashing. This convinces Billy to shoot straight henceforth, for “[w]hen Billy saw the culprit's naked back under the scourge gridironed with red welts, and worse; when he marked the dire expression on the liberated man's face...Billy was horrified. He resolved that never...would he make himself liable to such a visitation...” His hard work for fear of further dehumanization, earns him the respect of his senior sailors, and the jealousy and attention of Claggart, yet another symbol for power suppressing identity. Claggart serves as an metaphorical extension of power, manifesting society’s repression of the individual, while Billy Budd represents individualism in itself. In conclusion, Billy Budd’s sense of self is stripped from him, and although he reacts to his bondage with conviction and work ethic in attempts to lay low, his actions only serve to make him more conspicuous to Claggart, fueling his resentment towards