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billy budd herman melville novel
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Parallels Between Billy Budd and the Life of Melville
As with many great works of literature, it is important to become familiar with the author's life and time period in which he or she lived. This understanding helps to clarify the significance and meaning of his or her work. In many ways, Billy Budd depicts issues of importance to Herman Melville with both direct and indirect parallels to the time of the Civil War and to particular individuals of Melville's life. Important to the creation of Billy Budd were the war, current politics, slavery, and even the assassination of President Lincoln. This essay intends to identify the analogous relationship between these incidences and the particular individuals of Melville's life that inspired him to write Billy Budd.
Melville seems to have lived a life that was inevitably centered around war and politics. His grandparents were fighters during the Revolutionary War and Melville was of age 42 when the Civil War erupted. Melville also spent a large part of his life as a sailor. Although he never participated in the war in any official capacity, we see evidence of how the Civil War was of glaring significance in his life by examining Billy Budd and most of his other works.
Politics were an important factor in the life of Herman Melville. Although he was known to never vote, he held tenaciously to his socio-political opinions. During that time, it was common for politics to be a big topic of family discussion as common political beliefs were strengtheners of the American family. Around then, major dissension existed between the Democrats and the Republicans. Also, families lived and behaved according to a particular faction's ideals. The Melville family generally shared the ...
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...lways. Melville was slowly saying "goodbye" to his sailorman days. His hopes that the world would view advancement in the destructive way he perceived it to be were shattered. As The Civil War World mentioned the parallel, "like the death of Billy Budd in Herman's last romance, it takes its significance from the mystery of life, from the existential beauty of youth in its heedless and vigorous dreamlike march toward its starry end," Melville died with his goal unreached, despite his attempts to communicate to Americans through creative literature. Herman Melville's Billy Budd offers us insightful thoughts about the struggle between good vs. evil, Christ vs. Satan, subordination vs. insubordination, advancement vs. stagnation and manages to correlate them all in one novel.
Works Cited:
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd and Other Tales. New York: Signet - NAL, 1961.
Melville interjected a positive feeling into the narrative, White Jacket, by introducing three humanitarians. These included: Mad Jack, Colbrook, and Jack Chase. Each of these characters spoke out against corporal punishment in the narrative; however, the ultimate decision to punish the men remained in the hands of the unforgiving captains at sea. The main character of the novel occurred as White Jacket. Unfortunately, he committed an unwitting offense and was to be subjected to flogging. In his frantic last moments prior to flogging, White Jacket envisioned himself grabbing Captain Claret and flinging them both over the side to the more forgiving sea. Fortunately, humanitarians, Colbrook and Chase, both stepped forward at great risk to themselves and saved White Jacket from humiliation and abuse. White Jacket's desperate attempt to elude punishment conveyed to society the drastic measures needed to induce change. In the end, it remained obvious that Melville likened the ship to a working model of society. He observed that naval discipline was not compatible with democratic ideology. Author Eleanor Simpson stated in her essay, "Melville and the Negro," that Melville attacks all forms of arbitrary government and legalized brutality. Though his immediate target is the military machine as codified in the Articles of War, his whole stance is one of democratic rebellion against the law or act of government, which undermines or simply ignores the dignity and rights of men.
In conclusion, this essay analyzes the similarities and differences of the two stories written by Herman Melville, Billy Budd and Bartleby. The settings, characters, and endings in the two stories reveal very interesting comparisons and contrasts. The comparison and contrast also includes the interpretation of the symbolism that Melville used in his two stories. The characters, Billy and Bartleby, could even be considered autobiographical representatives of Herman Melville.
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories. Ed. Frederick Busch. New York: Penguin, 1986.
Melville’s characters are distinct individuals that have some similarities and differences. There are three traits that tie Captain Ahab and Billy Budd together even though they are on different sides in the fight between Good and Evil. They each have communication problems that play a part in their deaths. Neither of them can see an issue from another point of view, nor can they be influenced by others, although for entirely different reasons. Ahab and Billy share a few traits even though they are generally opposite characters.
The Saint’s received more academic support from the teachers and as a result seven out of the eight Saints went on to college. Three went to get an advanced degree such as a Ph.D in history and a law or medicine degree. The other four had positions as executive trainees or managers. One Saint, Jerry, graduated from high school after his second year as a senior. After graduating, he didn’t advance to college. He was a used car salesman before he ended up unemployed.
His work also sheds light on why different gender roles are hard for people to accept, due to the way they were brought up, and the culture they are surrounded by (Devor 8). With the belief that gender role behaviors are concrete, teenage boys believe that they must act according to their gender.
Wilson, Sarah. "Melville and the Architecture of Antebellum Masculinity." American Literature 76.1 (2004): 59-87. Duke University Press. Web. 24 Nov. 2012.
Written by Herman Melville, Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative) describes the story of a sailor named William "Billy" Budd who is exchanged for another sailor to work aboard the warship H.M.S. Bellipotent. Billy is described as the Handsome Sailor, and his innocence is exposed through his actions. However, his innocence leads to his ignorance when he is believed to be apart of a mutiny by his rival John Claggart, who is the master-at-arms aboard the ship. Claggart reveals his accusations to Captain Edward Fairfax Vere. Unable to defend himself through words, Budd punches Claggart in the head and kills him. Captain Vere and the drumhead court, the first lieutenant, the captain of marines, and the sailing master, then decide the fate of Billy. Even though they recognize Billy's innocence, Captain Vere and the court decides that he should be hung for his actions. Billy Budd, Sailor ends with the hanging of the Handsome Sailor and concludes with a ballad titled "Billy in the Darbies". During the 1840s, Melville was a seaman for several merchant and whaler ships. Afterwards, he wrote several novels including his novel The Whale, later renamed Moby Dick. After writing the novel Pierre and several short stories and poems, Melville's acclamation as a writer drastically dimenshed, and he began working at the New York Customhouse in the 1860s. After retiring from his job at the New York Customhouse, Melville began writing his poem "Billy in the Darbies," using his experience as a seaman for foundation. When Melville read an article titled "The Mutiny of Sumers," which convicted three sailors of mutiny, one of the officers who convicted them being his cousin, he decided to expand his poem into a longer prose to reveal the inside story o...
The body of this argument lies in a meager psychoanalysis of Melville. I have had to take a very broad approach, look at Melville purely as a man. I have attempted to put the reader into Melville's head, where I have attempted to put myself. To better achieve this I discuss much of Melville's background, hoping to give the reader a sense of what he had experienced. I have written with confidence, but hopefully not too much, you must decide for yourselves what of mine you feel is right. It is always very hard to use psychoanalytical approaches, because, as the mind is a mystery, it is all ultimately unproved. All psychoanalytical opinion is based on event, as all psychology is based on the idea that men are shaped by experience. I speculate below, on things I cannot really know, and I do this only to achieve some rough personal connections between Melville and his Moby-Dick. It serves me, and I hope you as well.
The chapters 3-5 are there to establish a historical background of the story of the novel. In chapter 4 we can see how Melville’s discretion when he speaks of Nelson. Melvin did not only care but he had a deep concern for human rights and democracy, and his digression by praision Nelson is almost seems excessive. The author plays a kind of narrative, a story that is praising a man that is effusively that justifies the military force methods in which he is involved. It is very easy to confuse Melville with his narrators throughout the novel because Melville is a man that loves the sea. Melville separates the narrator voice in order to give it a more subtle and sophisticated perspective. Melville in the story exposes war and the machinery of
Adrenaline makes your heart beat faster and your eyes dilate, effects that can last longer than you might like.
Both the Hammurabi Code and the Mosaic Law were received by their peoples in similar ways. The Hammurabi Code was written by the Babylonian king, Hammurabi. He received these codes through divine intervention. He was given these codes by the sun god, Shamas atop a mountain. Mosaic Law was written by the God of the Hebrews. They received this law when Moses, the leader of the Jewish nation, was led up Mt. Sinai by Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews.
In the novella Billy Budd, Melville portrays his characters in such a way as to demonstrate the constant conflict between good and evil in the world. He achieves this by the utilization of Biblical symbolism with all of his characters. Melville portrays Billy as a Christ like figure because Billy was the innocent man that was brought into an evil world (the world of a war ship during those times), full of corruption and later on he had to be sacrificed for the betterment of the many. Melville suggests that Billy’s life is comparable to that of Jesus Christ in several ways. One of the examples that Melville compares young Billy’s life with that of Jesus is when Claggart falsely accuses Billy of organizing a mutiny aboard the Indomitable, just
Herman Melville's Billy Budd is a classic tale of good and evil. Good is constantly attacked by evil - until good falters. Through the use of many literary devices, Melville makes a compelling story and develops his theme. He shows that the good and righteous will triumph over evil at the end, even when the evil is death.
Beowulf’s first accomplishment as an epic hero was his battle with Grendel. Grendel was a huge beast, a descendent of Cain, who ruthlessly murdered innocent Danes because he felt pity for himself. Upon hearing of the Dane’s problem, Beowulf set off to help the Danish without having been called upon. Even though Beowulf had men backing him, He drew battle with Grendel alone and without armor or weapons. Yet, Beowulf emerged victorious with the arm of Grendel as his trophy. Beowulf then went on to kill Grendel’s vengeful mother and a huge fire-breathing dragon who thought it had been done wrong by the Geats. Alas, the killing of the dragon would be Beowulf’s last great battle for the dragon took Beowulf’s life in the struggle for his own.