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

God. There are readers who feel this lack of information turns Billy
into an Everyman figure and makes him more universal. Others say
that it isolates him and emphasizes his uniqueness.

There is still another aspect to Billy's innocence that we haven't
discussed. Again and again, Billy is called a "barbarian." What
Melville had in mind here was a natural, precivilized man--the
"noble savage"--similar to the islanders we meet in Typee. Like the
islanders, Billy lacks an understanding of the tricks of
sophisticated life. He's easygoing, lives in the present, and
expresses himself through his body and emotions--not his intellect.

Billy is often seen as a symbol for Christ. Like Christ, he is an
innocent man who is unjustly accused and put to death. The Christ
symbolism comes out strongest in the scenes where Claggart accuses
Billy of plotting a mutiny and Billy's hanging. Comparisons with
Christ add to the symbolic significance of Billy's story and elevate
Billy even further above the sphere of the common sailor. But these
comparisons also draw your attention to the many ways he is not like
Christ: his violence, his lack of worldly knowledge and
understanding, his stutter, and his gullibility.

Can someone like Billy survive long in a world that is not nearly as
good as he is? On a symbolic level, his downfall through the traps
laid by Claggart reenacts the fall of Adam from a state of innocence
and follows the oldest theme of all: good versus evil. But on a more
realistic level, if you've ever known someone like Billy, you know
how vulnerable he is to attack by a clever, deceptive enemy. Billy
as a symbol is the innocent whom the devil will always seek to
destroy. Billy as a man is the eternal good guy who gets trapped in
a world more complicated and more treacherous than he is.


BILLY BUDD: JOHN CLAGGART

What is John Claggart's problem? This is a question you can think
about endlessly and still not answer to your satisfaction. Claggart
is the force of evil in Billy Budd. He is Billy's opposite in just
about every way. This will give you a good handle on how to talk
about Claggart, but it doesn't get to the bottom of him. As Melville
makes so clear in the novel, evil is a mystery that can never be
adequately explained. And John Claggart, the embodiment of evil,
contains this mystery at the very center of his character.

To look at him, you might not think he's so bad. Thirty-five years
old, tall, dark-haired, and fairly handsome, there are only two
really unusual things about his appearance--a dead-white complexion
and an overly large chin. Claggart's job is master-at-arms aboard
the Bellipotent, but in fact what he does is spy on the crew of the
lower gun decks. He's supposed to report any infringement of the