“To deal in double meanings and insinuations of any sort was quite foreign to his nature.”
“Now something such an one was Claggart, in whom was the mania of an evil nature, not engendered by vicious training or corrupting books or licentious living, but born with him and innate, in short “a depravity according to nature.”
On the surface, this novella is a simple story about a naive sailor on an English warship in 1797 who inadvertently kills a superior and gets his just consequences. Upon closer examination, Herman Melville has deliberately crafted the tale so that the characters represent important societal messages. He integrates symbols, allusions, and timeless themes into this novella.
Billy is a foundling and wants very much to please his superiors on The HMS Indomitable (Bellipotent in some editions of the book), but does not have the wherewithal. He mistakes cruel comments for good-natured kidding and learns too late how cruel humans can be. John Claggart, the master of arms aboard the ship, who believed that Billy had contempt for him, represents humanity’s evil and ugly side. It seems that Claggart could not accept Billy’s popularity and happy-go-lucky spirit. He also seemed obsessed with Billy’s good looks. Instead of guiding Billy, the sinister Claggart sets him up for wrongdoing and reports him for planning a mutiny. The charges seem absurd, but the military rules are strict and Edward Vere, the ship’s captain, brings Billy into a meeting to discuss charges. At the meeting, Billy strikes Claggart, and he dies. Now, Billy is a murderer. A very torn, Captain “Starry” Vere follows protocol and schedules a hearing that results in sentencing Billy to death for murder.
Melville is an esteemed American author, and his words are replete with complex meanings. None of the characters is fully developed, though, and it seems that the reader is provided a life lesson of good/evil and how those in authority rule. The character trait of innocence and naivete is a strong theme. The reader is reminded that humans are forever shaped by the child within. Billy has never learned impulse control or the danger of disagreeing with and harming one’s superior, especially in the military. Much literary critique of the book is widely available, and an opera based on the work is still performed. Although I am glad to have read it, I don’t really recommend it, and I hope youngsters are not being forced to read books with such stilted language to study the classics.
