Billy Budd Sailor Essay

truncheon Budd, Sailor, a invoice by Herman Melville, at initiatory sight, seems like it is nothing else unless the story of a sailor who is executed after being wrongly charge of mutiny. But when one examines the story deeply one finds that the story has a different meaning and that Billy Budd resembles deliverer in many ways. Billy Budd as a Christ figure According to the authors description, Billy Budd, the main protagonist, like Christ was handsome, pure and as inculpable as a child in a world serious of evil men. He had the same physical features of Christ. Like Christ, he had drab eyes and a symmetrical figure.The parity is evident in the first chapter when headman Graveling, after the crew stopped fighting as soon as Billy joined them, says that Billy neither preached nor express anything to the crew. t here(predicate) was a kind of virtuousness in him that reached out to people. (Melville, 1924) The author here alludes to Christ who was also virtuous and healed a ll those who came into contact with him. The symbolic representation is more evident in the end chapters, especially in the scenes of the finish of Billy Budd. For instance, Captain Vere cries, Struck dead by an angel of theology (Melville, 1924) after Billy strikes Claggart, and then says, Yet the angel must run, (Melville, 1924) when he realizes that Billy has to die. Billy, before he dies, says, God bless Captain Vere. (Melville, 1924) All this reminds us of Christ. Christ like Billy in the sweet forgave all those who were responsible for his death. The resemblance is all the more evident in the last chapter when Billy is executed. Here the author describes how Billys shipmates adore the gallows from which Billy was hung. Christs followers to a fault worshipped the Cross.The desktop and all the events that take place have a striking resemblance to the events that took place when Christ was executed. In conclusion it can be said that Billy Budd in the novel is not an ordin ary sailor but a Christ-like figure, a symbol of Christ with characteristics of Christ. Just as Christ was a victim of an antagonistic society and had to sacrifice his life, Billy Budd too was an innocent victim of society and had to sacrifice his life. References Melville, Herman (1924), Billy Budd, Sailor, The University of Chicago Press, 1962.