Billy Budd
100. Herman Melville, Billy Budd
At the beginning of this novella, Billy Budd is impressed onto a British warship and forced to become a member of its crew. Billy accepts his new duties cheerfully, though; he is a good-natured, innocent, simple man who takes life as he finds it. He soon becomes a favorite among the sailors, who teasingly refer to him as “The Handsome Sailor.” But there is one person on the ship who doesn’t share this general goodwill: John Claggart, a petty officer whose dislike of Billy grows into obsessive hatred. In the confined space of the ship, a confrontation is inevitable, and the result will force the ship’s captain to contemplate the most difficult questions of justice and morality.
I’ve wanted to read this book ever since a professor mentioned it in the context of an undergraduate ethics class. The most (and, really, the only) interesting part of the story is the ship captain’s speech just after the climactic action occurs. He must weigh various ethical, legal, and practical concerns as he decides what to do with Billy Budd, who unintentionally violates an important maritime law in his dealings with Claggart. Should Billy be exonerated, since he didn’t mean to do anything wrong? Or should the law be applied to him strictly, considering the need for a captain’s control of his ship? Thinking about this moral dilemma was very interesting to me; however, Melville’s overwrought prose and needless digressions lessened my enjoyment of the story. This was my first encounter with Melville, and I’m not particularly eager to read more of his work. Still, I’d recommend Billy Budd to people who enjoy thinking about ethical questions.