Billy Budd: The problem of the existence of good and evil

Billy Budd: The problem of the existence of good and evil

Continued… from the previous

Viewed in symbolic terms, Billy is a personification of simplicity, goodness and innocence. There isn't the least touch of evil or wickedness in the character of Billy; and he is even unaware of the fact that evil exists. There is no malice in him, and he cannot conceive of there being any malice in the heart of anybody else. Being entirely and wholly good himself, he doesn't in the least suspect anybody else of any evil intentions. That is why he remains totally unaware of Claggart’s secret hostility towards him; and, even when the old Dansker tells him that Jemmy Legs is “down on him”, Billy Budd pays no heed to the old Dansker’s warning. Billy accepts Claggart's ironic remark about his handsome action in spilling the soup on its face value. Melville, have has traced the flaw in chapter 10.

The next day an incident served to confirm Billy Budd in his incredulity as to the Dansker’s strange summing up of the case submitted. The ship at noon going large before the wind was rolling on her course, and he below at dinner and engaged in some sportful talk with the members of his mess chanced in a sudden lurch to spill the entire contents of his souppan upon the new scrubbed deck. Claggart, the Master – at – Arms, official rattan in hand, happened to be passing along the battery in a bay of which the mess was lodged, and the greasy liquid streamed just across his path. Stepping over it, he was proceeding on his way without comment since the matter was nothing to take notice of under the circumstances, when he happened to observe who it was that had done the spilling. His countenance changed. Pausing, he was about to ejaculate something hasty at the sailor, but checked himself, and, pointing down to the streaming soup, playfully tapped him from behind with his rattan, saying in a low musical voice peculiar to him at times: “Handsomely done, my lad! "Handsome is as handsome did it too!" And with that passed on. Not noted by Billy, as not cowing within his view, was the involuntary smile, or rather grimace, that accompanied Claggart’s equivocal words" (34).

In fact, this remark by Claggart is received by Billy as a compliment which, in his opinion, gives the lie to the old Dansker’s view that Claggart is inwardly antagonistic towards Billy. Billy’s simplicity, innocence and goodness can thus notified as the hamartia which can be compared to those of Adam before the Fall. These qualities of Billy make of him and entirely exceptional kind of man. Being a common man, Billy suffers from a defect also. This is a vocal defect. This is a defect, which in a moment of crisis or at a time of emotional stress renders Billy incapable of speaking properly. On such occasions Billy can only stammer or stutter, and sometimes he can only produce a gurgling sound from his throat and is unable to speak coherently at all. It is precisely this defect, which may be indicated as the hamartia that becomes responsible for Billy’s inability to defend himself when accused falsely of mutinous intentions by Claggart, and which leads Billy impulsively to give Claggart a severe blow that proves fatal. It has particularly to be noted that Billy had no prier intention to kill Claggart or even to do the least harm, bodily or otherwise, to that man. Billy’s action in hitting Claggart is totally unpremeditated.

            Claggart, in symbolic terms, is a personification of evil. Melville has taken special care in drawing the character of Claggart and in psycho- analyzing Claggart’s mind. In another words, Melville has created Claggart as a villain who weaves the plot of conspiracy. Using a phrase taken from Plato’s writings, Melville attributes to Claggart a “natural depravity” which means “depravity according to nature” or “inborn depravity.” Claggart is evil by nature. Evil is innate in him. And it isn't an ordinary kind of evil, the evil and him becomes a mania with him. Now, a man who is by nature evil would become antagonistic to others with out any thyme or reason. The very innocence and goodness of others may provoke such a men so much that he wouldn’t rest till he has done some serious damage to others. The Evil in Claggart is animated and stirred into action by the very innocence and harmlessness of Billy. There is no rational explanation for the existence of this evil in Claggart. This evil had not been generated in him by vicious training or by corrupting books or by loose living. It was simply born with him. Melville descries this kind of evil as a “mystery of iniquity”. Billy’s simplicity, goodness, and innocence arouse a feeling of envy in Claggart. He would like to acquire Billy’s qualities but realizing that he cannot do so, he is filled with despair. The feelings of envy and despair then make him antagonistic to Billy. Envy and antipathy begin to co-exist in Claggart. When he looks at Billy, his face is manned by an expression of malice just as in the Bible we read of Saul’s face assuming an expression of sadness when Saul gazed on the comely young David. "Driven by such passions, Claggart adopts the desperate course of fabricating a report against Billy and lodging a formal complaint with captain Vere to the effect that Billy is a potential mischief-maker" (Arvin 160).