"Cliff Notes - Billy Budd" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

society from a state of simplicity to the nightmare of the modern
world.

6. A STUDY IN CONTRASTING VALUES

Throughout Billy Budd, different values are compared and contrasted.
Billy not only represents innocence, but emotional truth,
spontaneous action, physical beauty and health, and a natural
goodness untainted by the deceit of civilization. His opposite is
Claggart, who is associated with the depravity of the intellect, the
corruption that hides behind a civilized exterior, secrecy, and a
tricky genius at manipulating appearances. In the middle is Captain
Vere, who shares some of the characteristics of each. Does he
resolve them? Is it possible to resolve them? The resolution or lack
of resolution may be deeply embedded in human nature itself.

7. THE DIFFICULTY OF MAKING A DECISION

All the events in Billy's story emphasize the impossibility of
making a fair decision about his fate. Melville gives you many ways
of looking at it--from the point of view of what is essentially
right and wrong, from a legal standpoint, from an historical
perspective, in terms of the total good of the ship, from the
perspective of basic human compassion--and forces you to undergo the
difficulty of making a choice. There is no easy answer, and really
no right answer. So you must settle it as best you can with your own
conscience, just as Vere must settle it with his.


BILLY BUDD: STYLE AND POINT OF VIEW

The style and point of view of Billy Budd can be treated together
because the strong narrative voice determines both. The narrator of
the story is clearly a highly educated person with a great knowledge
of mythology and the Bible, and with strong opinions that he
occasionally steps forward and asserts (for instance, when he holds
up Lord Nelson as an example of glorious heroism). Though the
narrative voice is consistent throughout the novel, the point of
view continually shifts. Sometimes the narrator puts you inside the
heads of the characters--he tells you Claggart's secret thoughts
about Billy, and makes you feel the anguish Captain Vere experiences
in making such a hard decision. But then sometimes he purposely
excludes both himself and you from a scene--most notably when Vere
goes to tell Billy that he must hang--and avoids making judgments.
The shifting perspective and the drawing back from judgments force
you to apply your own feelings and values to the events of the book.
It draws you in and makes you experience the complexities of the
situation.

The narrator constantly makes allusions to the Bible and to Greek