He writes that while critics are generally divided between those who see Captain Vere as "an unwitting collaborator" with Claggart and those who feel Vere was correct to have Billy sent to the gallows. In his piece Goodheart explains that Billy is "…variously seen as Adam before the fall, as a noble barbarian, as Isaac the sacrificial victim…and as a Christ figure" (Goodheart, 2006, p. 81).
Point TWO: Goodheart makes the most of his assertion that no matter what allegorical link to Billy, the protagonist is symbolic of innocence. When Billy lashes out at Claggart, it is due to his innocence. He is first of all innocent of the charge that he was leading a mutiny, Goodheart explains. Secondly, Billy is innocent when it comes to the existence of evil (Goodheart, p. 82); he is certainly confronted with evil but he doesn't grasp Claggart's false accusations as evil. And Goodheart believes that Billy's stutter itself is "an essential part of [Billy's] innocence" because due to his stutter he cannot fully articulate his case in this matter (i.e., his innocence).
Point ONE: Moby Dick: Meanwhile, Denis Donoghue -- professor of English at New York University -- links Moby Dick with the events and aftermath of 9/11. First of all, in the days following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, President George W. Bush drew a line in the sand between what he defined as evil and what he defined as good. The good was anything American and the evil was embodied in Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. And Donoghue argues from the point-of-view that bin Laden and the white whale Moby Dick were evil forces to be killed in a wild rage of revenge and retaliation.
Point TWO: Captain Ahab of course wanted revenge because the whale had taken his leg; Bush wanted revenge because bin Laden and the terrorists had attacked his country under his watch -- the first major attack on American soil since the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. Ahab wanted retaliation against an enemy that could hide deep...
Frequent interception of American ships to impress American citizens was a major cause of the War of 1812. ("Impressments." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 10 Aug. 2005, (http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A0825052.html) The enforced and arbitrary nature of the fate of impressment, and Budd's fate of facing the code of military law, which was different from the life he was accustomed to, did not understand, and had not agreed to, was thus the result of
Thus, Melville clearly portrays Billy as the greatest of innocents, infused with godlike looks and a pure heart. As this type of a character is realistically unlikely, many readers can quickly interpret Billy to be, therefore, a symbol of innocence. Indeed, even in his hanging Billy's image remains intact, as his last words are: "God Bless Captain Vere" (1426). This innocence, however, meets with the harsh ruling of justice. Indeed,
Frankenstein -- Billy Budd BILLY BUDD & VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN: TWO TRAGIC FIGURES After a close reading of Mary W. Shelley's Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus, first published in 1818, and Herman Melville's novella Billy Budd, published around 1855, it is quite clear that the main characters, being Victor Frankenstein and Billy Budd, share some common attributes. Both are young, adventurous and full of curiosity and are caught up in a world that through
Myths - "The Other Side of Wonder" Like the empty sky it has no boundaries, yet it is right in this place, ever profound and clear.2 So run the lines from Cheng Tao, describing signifying, identifying myths - always there explaining existence and every facet of life, explaining the reason behind every man's actions: So, myths. For what is a myth? Lillian Hornstein3 describes it best. "A myth is the traditional tale common to
Melville and Clarel Introduction Herman Melville is typically mostly known for his novel Moby-Dick, but the prose writer turned to poetry in his later years after his novels (following Moby-Dick) failed to be best-sellers. Poetry, it was thought, would be a creative outlet for him that would refresh his reading audience and spark new life into his readership and following. The attempt failed to produce much of anything in the way of
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