Who Is The Main Character In 'Billy Budd, Sailor And Other Uncompleted Writings'?

2025-12-31 04:05:18 263

3 Answers

Tobias
Tobias
2026-01-04 19:31:38
I've always been fascinated by Herman Melville's unfinished works, and 'Billy Budd, Sailor' stands out as this hauntingly beautiful fragment. The main character, Billy Budd, is this innocent, almost angelic young sailor whose physical perfection and pure heart make him beloved by his crewmates. But there's this tragic irony—his inability to speak under pressure becomes his downfall when he's falsely accused by Claggart, the master-at-arms. Melville paints Billy as this Christ-like figure, radiating goodness in a world riddled with corruption. It’s heartbreaking how his very nature—his stammer, his trust—seals his fate. The novella’s unfinished state adds to its mystique; you’re left wondering how Melville might’ve deepened Billy’s tragedy or resolved the moral ambiguities of Captain Vere’s decision.

What really sticks with me is how Billy’s story mirrors Melville’s own struggles with injustice and misunderstood virtue. The other fragments in the collection, like 'Daniel Orme,' echo similar themes of isolation and moral conflict. It’s like Melville was wrestling with these ideas up to his last days, and Billy Budd became this perfect vessel for his final, unanswerable questions about good and evil.
Kayla
Kayla
2026-01-05 14:05:18
Reading 'Billy Budd' feels like staring at an iceberg—what’s on the surface is just a fraction of its depth. Billy himself is deceptively simple: a 'handsome sailor' whose naivety clashes with the brutal hierarchy of a naval ship. But Melville layers him with symbolic weight. His stammer isn’t just a quirk; it’s the flaw in paradise, the crack that lets cruelty in. Claggart’s hatred for him is almost metaphysical—evil recoiling from purity. And Captain Vere? Ugh, he kills me. His internal conflict over condemning Billy reveals how institutions crush individual conscience.

The other unfinished writings in the collection, like 'The Isle of the Cross,' hint at what might’ve been if Melville had finished them. They’re all these rough gems, but 'Billy Budd' shines brightest because it’s so tightly focused. You get the sense Melville was pouring everything he’d learned about human nature into this compact, devastating parable. It’s not just a character study; it’s a confrontation with the unthinkable—how goodness can be legally murdered.
Victoria
Victoria
2026-01-06 20:51:58
Billy Budd’s the kind of character who lingers in your mind like a folk hero—too good for this world, doomed by his own virtues. Melville crafts him as this radiant, almost mythic figure aboard the Bellipotent, where his mere presence exposes the rot in the system. Claggart’s persecution of him feels like fate, not just malice. And the climax? Brutal. Billy’s accidental killing of Claggart and subsequent hanging turn him into a martyr, but Melville refuses easy answers. Was justice served? Could Vere have saved him? The ambiguity is the point.

What’s wild is comparing Billy to Melville’s other unfinished protagonists, like the tormented veterans in 'John Marr.' They all grapple with society’s indifference to innocence. Billy’s story feels especially urgent now—how often do we still sacrifice the pure for the sake of order? The novella’s unfinished state makes it ache even more; you want to clutch at the missing pages, desperate for closure that’ll never come.
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