Billy Budd: A Study of Presumed Justice

by

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction1

Thesis Statement2

Dichotomy between Positive Law2

Criminal Justice System4

Discord On Board the Bellipotent5

Justice and Law Enforcement6

Captain the Honorable Edward Fairfax Vere10

Captain Vere versus Natural Law12

Captain Vere's Legal Process: Essentialism in the Plan13

Conclusion15

REFERENCES18

Billy Budd: A Study of Presumed Justice

Introduction

The main characters of Billy Budd illustrate the idea that man is incapable of complete comprehension or execution of natural justice. In Billy Budd, John Claggart, Captain Vere, and Melville suggested clearly that along with all the advancements of our bodies, minds and souls we are still naturally restricted from the understanding or exercising of real justice. According to Melville the justice is beyond the limitations, powers of actual conceptualization and idealization of human being. Melville exhibits that law and justice is something else. Justice is attempted by following strict naval law in the case of Billy Budd. Although Melville unfairly condemned as a mutinous criminal at the same time that John Claggart and Captain Vere are praised for their sense of loyalty and duty.

As Melville has a strong sense of legal ambiguity, so it is obvious that Budd, Claggart and Vere all retreat within their own confines of naval law. They were not supposed to approach any sense of positive justice which would exceeds the boundaries of man-made law. Melville interestingly based the inside narrative on a number of English naval mutinies at Spithead in the late 1700's, and on a mutiny on the U.S. Navy Brig the “Somers,” in which a cousin of his was involved. In 1797, Melville sets the novel when England had suffered from an outbreak in the fleet on the Nore, later to be known as the Great Mutiny. The British Empire increased restrictions on each of its vessels in an effort to once again secure its reputation as a great naval power. The British Empire had attempting to tighten control and discipline of the sailors on board, in an effort to prevent further outbreaks of mutiny. In Billy Budd this point is emphasized when all captains, even Captain Vere, are ordered by their superiors to insure law and order on board, as well as to minimize any opportunities for mutiny.

The overarching goal of the paper will be to explain how Billy Budd is a great expose on how the legal justice system does not always work for a defendant's best interest. The novella brings to the reader's attention that not everything is black or white, good or evil, just or unjust, moral or immoral.

Thesis Statement

The research study is conducted to examine the presumed justice. To accomplish this research aim the novel Billy Budd is selected. Billy Budd is a novel written by an American author Herman Melville. Herman Melville wrote this novel to open readers' eyes to injustices in the world and have asked the readers themselves is the criminal justice system we use the right one. The character of novel Captain the Honorable Edward Fairfax Vere is correct in their view that to uphold ...