Billy Budd Essay Comparing Christ to Billy - 3207 Words

Comparing Christ to Billy of Billy Budd I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head! wrote Herman Melville in his June 1851 letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne (Davis and Gilman 3). Yet, by the time he began writing Billy Budd, Sailor in 1888, Melville must have tempered this view, for Billy Budd depicts the inevitable destruction of a man who is all heart but who utterly lacks insight. Melville no doubt intends for his reader to connect this tale with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Billy Budd endures a persecution similar to Christs; he is executed for like reasons, and he eventually ascends, taking the full rose of the dawn (BB 376). Yet, in creating Billy Budd, Melville forms a character who is but a half-Christ, more†¦show more content†¦10:16). Billy Budd is neither. He may possess the heart of Christ in that he usually unconditionally loves others, but he lacks any trace of the wisdom of the serpent. Nor is he yet quite a dove (BB 300). If a peacemaker, he is a fighting peacemaker (BB 296). He does not, as Christ taught men to do, turn the other cheek to insults. (Unless, of course, he fails to recognize them.) When the Red Whiskers . . . insultingly [gives] him a dig under the ribs, he hits the man (BB 295). Yet the Red Whiskers grows to love Billy nonetheless, probably because the sailor has a harmless heart, if not a harmless arm. Billy is like the Christ Child--loving, innocent, and never maliciously harmful--but he little resembles the mature Man. Melville, as can be discerned from reading his novels, was clearly no orthodox Christian. However, he had a more complete view of Christ than that with which most critics credit him, a more complete view, perhaps, than is possessed by such critics themselves. Melville appears to have been at least as concerned with the mature Christ as with the Christ Child. It was the experienced Christ, the Man of Sorrows, whom Melville referred to as the truest of all men (Moby Dick 392). No allegory is complete; Melville himself wrote in his November 1851 letter toShow MoreRelatedEssay about Comparing Billy Budd and Christ3122 Words   |  13 PagesComparing Billy and Christ in Billy Budd Herman Melvilles Billy Budd provides us with a summation and conclusive commentary on the ambiguities of moral righteousness and social necessity. The conflict that arises pitting natural justice in opposition to military justice essentially deliberates over whether the sacrifice of the individual is required for the continuum and conservation of social order. The deep allegorical theme of the passion of Christ that resides in Billy Budd illustratesRead More Compare and Contrast Billy Budd versus Bartleby Essay1876 Words   |  8 PagesA Comparison/Contrast Analysis of Billy Budd and Bartleby Several comparisons and contrasts can be made concerning the two stories, Billy Budd and Bartleby, written by Herman Melville. The setting of the two stories reveals an interesting comparison and contrast between the British Navy on the open sea, and the famous Wall Street of New York. The comparison and contrast of characters, Billy Budd, Captain Vere, and Claggart in Billy Budd, and the `narrator and Bartleby in Bartleby