SAILutations!
Hey everyone - Stephanie here.
As I thought about the movie we just finished watching, Billy Budd, I noticed some underlying themes (or stuff I just thought was a theme but is actually a neat coincidence, you decide...).
I think Cristy mentioned that Billy was going to die for his crew, in a most Jesus-like way according to the Christian faiths. In fact, it almost seemed to me that Claggert was like the Devil, tempting an innocent Jesus-like Budd into evil and seeking to destroy him. Even when he is sentenced to death, he takes it calmly and dies for the sake of the whole crew, who were conspiring to kill Claggert and might have died in Billy's place. This may be taking it a little too far, but Captain Veer and the men at the trial seemed to me like Pontious Pilate and the rest of the citizens that stood by and let Jesus be crucified for the sake of duty and maintaining respect and honor, not for justice.
However, I do not believe Billy Budd to be a direct allegory to Christianity. If Budd were Christ-like, he would have surrendered himself for the people, and would not have struck Claggert down and killed him (whether intentionally or not). I believe Melville wanted a more human figure, so we could empathize with Budd, and perhaps create a more tangible redemption.
Just as a quick side note, the bible was probably the most frequent prop throughout the whole movie...
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2 comments:
Hey, it's Erin.
Another religious metaphor that can be made is Billy being forced to leave the "Rights of Man" to Adam and Eve being forced to leave the garden of Eden. Compared to life on the "Avenger", life on the "Rights of Man" could be seen as paradise, although in this case Billy was forced from the ship through no fault of his own. This also connects to the idea of losing innocence, because Adam and Eve lost their innocence in the garden and were subsequently sent out into the rest of the world, while Billy seems to lose his innocence much later on the "Avenger"
I think you could definately compare Captain Vere to Pontius Pilate. In the Bible, Pontius felt that to kill Christ would be immoral. He let the crowd choose to kill Jesus or Barabbas, and when they chose to crucify Jesus, he was astonished. He struggled with the decision to crucfiy Jesus, just like Captain Vere struggled to hang Billy. In the end, both men sided with the law, and went against their emotions.
I also agree with Erin. One of the greatest characteristics of Billy is his innocence. In the end, like Adam and Eve, his innocence is his fault.
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