Melville explains to us that we need to strike some kind of balance between these two ideas; we need to have morality and virtue; we need to be in the world, but not of the world. To illustrate his theme, Melville uses a few characters who are all very different, the most important of which is Billy Budd. Billy is the focal point of the book and the single person whom we are meant to learn the most from. On the ship, the Rights-of-Man, Billy is a cynosure among his shipmates; a leader, not by authority, but by example. All the members of the crew look up to him and love him, as Meliville explains:He is "strength and beauty. Tales of his prowess [are] recited. Ashor

Through this situation Billy now finds himself in, Melville has us ask ourselves a question: Would it be right for Billy to heed the advice of experience and wisdom and tell the captain about Claggart's conspiracy? Or should he instead keep his mouth shut and try to work things out himself? Being the good person that he is, Billy tries to forget about it and hopes that it will pass, but it does not. And that is where the fourth of these few characters comes in. Captain Vere, with his love for knowledge and books, and "... his settled convictions [which stood] as a dike against those invading waters of novel opinion, social, political, and otherwise, which carried away as in a torrent no few minds in those days, minds by nature not inferior to his own"(25-26). Vere is a man who believes in rules, regulations, and procedure. In his opinion, everything must be done according to instruction, and deviation from that set way of thinking and operation is wrong. This way of thinking is illustrated as Melville commits what he calls a "literary sin": In this matter of writing, resolve as one may to keep to the main road, some bypaths have an enticement not readily to be withstood. I am going to err into such a bypath. If the reader will keep me company I shall be glad. At the least we can promise ourselves that pleasure which is wickedly said to be in sinning, for a literary sin the divergence will be. (20) Because of his philosophy, Captain Vere always strives to do that which he believes to be right according to the laws set by his superior officers. This is a stark contrast to Billy, who keeps quiet when he learns about a conspiracy to mutiny among the crew on board. In the book's climax, Claggart comes to Captain Vere and accuses Billy of conspiring to mutiny. Billy, so astonished by Claggart's allegation, strikes him dead with one blow to the head. In an effort to uphold military law and regulation, Captain Vere holds a trial in which he manipulates the reluctant court into co

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1338
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)