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Fighting an eternal battle of good and evil


Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd addresses many issues. His ideas are illustrated through various literary elements. The eternal battle of good and evil is one topic that is best seen through characterization and Melville’s elaborate use of symbols. He uses the characters Billy Budd and John Claggart as the embodiments of good and evil. Through these characters he shows us the two extremes of good and evil. While these characters cannot change themselves, each one of us must choose something in between these extremes because both good and evil will forever battle within each of us.


Symbolism and characterization are intertwined in this story. The characters themselves are symbols. Billy is a symbolic Christ figure. At the moment of his execution he was “In the pinioned figure,” (pg.87). This is one of several intimations that he is Christ-like. His execution was set up so he was hung in the crucified position and the heavens opened up to him when he died (pg.86).


Characterization is important to the story because good and evil is represented as the characters. Billy Budd is the embodiment of pure innocence and good. John Claggart is the representation of pure evil, and the opposing force to Billy. Both characters are somewhat static because they cannot change themselves. Claggart was not raised or trained to be evil. He was born with “a depravity according to nature.” (pg.). Melville is telling us we are not born this way. We have both and must make choices.


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Captain Veer is a more realistic character. He has both good and evil in him. He must make decisions like whether or not to kill Billy. Good inside him compels him to follow the law he has sworn to uphold, but also tells him to do what is right. Evil tells him to kill Billy, and bending the rules is acceptable. Killing Billy was morally wrong because he was innocent, but making an evil decision does not make Captain Veer evil. He also has goodness and feels terrible remorse later on when the ship is destroyed and he is about to die. His last words are “Billy Budd, Billy Budd.”(pg.) Captain Veer is symbolic for the way Melville says we live. We are not good or evil. We are each somewhere in between and can change how far to one side we go. Captain Veer chose evil and later showed remorse and became good. We know it was evil to kill Billy because he later felt remorse.


Each of us must choose to do good or evil. This decision is not made as a philosophy; it must be made every time we make take actions. We cannot rid ourselves of either, but must embrace one and fight the other. We must carefully weigh each action we plan on taking to make sure it is for the cause we choose to embrace.





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