Billy Budd: Two Concepts of Society and Nature

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819, as the third child of Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melville. Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet who are often classified as part of dark romanticism. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and Billy Budd, which were published posthumously.

Melville travelled to New York and secured his place as cabin boy on a ship bound for Liverpool, England. Upon return to New York he held various unsatisfying jobs until he next set sail on the whaling ship Acushnet in 1841. In search of adventures, Melville shipped out in 1839 as a cabin boy on the whaler Acushnet. He joined later the US Navy, and started to have long voyages on ships, sailing both the Atlantic and the South Seas. As a result of his remarkable experience in many ships, most of Melville’s books and works are all related to his journey in the sea. For Melville, there are two types of society and nature.

In a sense, the various ships in the novel represent different types of societies. The first society is the Rights-of-Man which symbolizes a place where individuals maintain their individuality. For example, in choosing to obey law over conscience, Captain Vere commits himself to society at the expense of own individuality. The second type of society is the Bellipotent which represents a military world in which, under the threat of violence. Furthermore, in the article, “Bringing out the beast Melville’s Billy Budd: The Dialogue of Darwinian and “Holy” Lexicons on board the Bellipotent” Eric Goldman argues that nearly every person in the Bellipotent “is likened to a specific animal” (Goldman). In fact, he implies the characteristics of most of these animals are wild, violence and will do anything just to survive. He interpreted that Billy is like an animal that accepts his impressments into military service as an unchangeable fact of his environment while Claggart is like an animal that lives in an irresistible environment (Goldman). Therefore, in the presence of evil and violence, the rules of society impinge upon the individual rights of men.

In his essay, John Noone argues that in Billy Budd’s world there are two concepts of nature. The two types of nature are the good and bad nature. Most importantly, he states that in good nature, people are noble savage, while in bad nature, people are evil. He also says that men are “naturally good” and they are surrounded by peace and happiness (249). In addition, he says that one of the quantities of good nature is when people are working together, which “each character radically sharing the rarer qualities of one nature” (260). In the other hand, bad nature is the place where people are only thinking about themselves and have the mind of war (252). Moreover, Claggart is one the characters who lives in bad nature (state of war) because he was corrupted with a lot of lies, keep his secrets from other people and wants to be better than Billy. As a result of his jealousy from Billy, he has the mind of “war of all against all”. Lastly, all humans are living in a good and bad nature which both controls and justifies what they do.

We can conclude that in our world there are two types of society and nature. Nevertheless, in the book Billy Budd by Melville, Right of Man is the place where people maintain their own identity while Bellipotent is a ship and type of society where people are in military mode and like animals that will do violence in order to survive. Moreover, by allowing ourselves to live in a good nature, it will give us the sense of happiness because of unity. However, if we live in a bad nature, our mind will be corrupted with lies and jealousy, which force us to commit a crime.

Work Cited

Goldman, Eric "BRINGING OUT THE BEAST IN MELVILLE'S BILLY BUDD: THE DIALOGUE OF DARWINIAN AND "HOLY" LEXICONS ON BOARD THE BELLIPOTENT." Studies in the Novel 37.4 (2005): 430-442. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 29 Nov. 2009.

"Herman Melville." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

30 Nov. 2009 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/374228/Herman-Melville>.

Noone Jr., John B. "BILLY BUDD: Two Concepts of Nature." American Literature 29.3 (1957): 249. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 29 Nov. 2009