Herman Melvilles Billy Budd - The Tragedy of Billy Budd :: Herman Melville Billy Budd Essays

The Tragedy of Justice in B bronchiticy Budd         Charles Reichs assessment of the encounter in wand Budd focuses on the distinction between the laws of society and the laws of nature. human race law says that men are the sum total of their actions, and no more. Reich uses this as a basis for his assertion that Billy is innocent in what he is, non what he does. The point of the novel is therefore not to try the good and evil in Billy or Claggart, but to assign the reader in the position of Captain Vere, who must interpret the laws of both man and nature.         Reich supports Veres decision to hang Billy. In defense of this he alludes to a famous English court case, in which three men were incriminate of murder. However, the circumstances which led them to murder were beyond their control they had been stranded at sea and forced to kill and eat their fourth companion, who had fallen ill and was about to die anyway. The Judge, Lord Coleridge, found them guilty because law cannot draw natures principle of self-preservation. In other words, necessity is not a plea for killing, even when this necessity is beyond human control. Since Billy is unable to book himself verbally, he responds to pure nature, and the dictates of necessity by lashing out at Claggart. I agree with Reichs notion that Vere was correct in  hanging Billy, and that it is society, not Vere, who should be criticized for this judgement for Vere is forced to reject the urgings of his own heart and his value to comply with the binding laws of man.         First, the moral issue aside, Captain Vere had no pick but to convict Billy. As captain of a ship low pressure of war and the constant threat of mutiny, Vere had to act swiftly. Also, as captain, Vere had the office of making sure the laws were strictly holdd, including the Mutiny Act. Although Vere knew in his heart Billy was innocent, Billys actions had to be punished.             For Vere to have acquitted Billy would mean that he had displace the divine law of nature above the laws he was bound to enforce as captain of a