Billy Budd, Sailor, by Herman MelvilleEssay title: Billy Budd, Sailor, by Herman MelvilleHeroes are often from divine ancestry, and are noted for their feats of courage and nobility of purpose. Often a hero is someone who has risked, or even sacrificed their life. Billy Budd, Sailor, by Herman Melville, contains one hero named Billy Budd, the “angel of God” (1906). Claggart and Captain Vere contain some of the heroic characteristics, still Billy is the singe character that obtains all of the traits of a hero, and therefore is the most qualified to fill that position. While Melville strains to put some heroic attributions within each character of the story, Billy is the most prominent of all who are mentioned. Thus, Billy Budd is the one true hero within the entire story.
Claggart is “… the urban Serpent [who] wriggled himself into [Billy’s] company” (1878). Being far from the hero of the story, Claggart is perceived as more of a villainous character. Claggart is in the story keeps “…incog. Nothing was known of his former life” (1886). This type of behavior could seem to suggest that Claggart is a hero, but does not want anyone to know so he conceals his identity. Rather, Claggart’s actions seem to allude to suspicious activities, which Claggart wants to remain concealed. Melville also seems to suggest to the reader that Claggart is a devious character because of his words used to describe Claggart such as a serpent, Tecumseh, and “… the spokesman of the envious children of Jacob…” (1903). Even accusing Billy reveals the divine evil that Claggart obtains within his soul. Only a cursed spirit, such as Claggart, would be able to convict a person that is so naпve and pure or heart, like Billy Budd.
Although his decision determines the outcome of the book, Captain Vere is no more of a Hero than Claggart. Vere seems to stand by his values because he took an oath when he went into the office and stands beside his pledge for the entire story, never faltering. A hero though is not someone who follows the rules, but rather the person who deviates from the law, or the accepted, in order to do well of the common being. In this sense, Captain Vere is not a hero, just a regular person who abides by the law. Vere does not even have the courage to save Billy saying that his “…vowed responsibility is in this: That however pitilessly that law may operate in any instances, we nevertheless adhere to it and administer it” (1912). It seems more likely thought that
v is to join the Army after being promoted to Lieutenant or the First Class. As a result, it seems to be more likely Captain Vere would become a Ranger, Ranger, and Ranger-of-choice if that had been the case—and has also been quite the way (at least to me). As a Captain, Captain Vere would be much more likely to use his powers to accomplish his vision rather than rely heavily on the status quo and use the power of his own life to bring about change at the time. However, that isn’t very good for the hero of Captain Vere, for his ideals can be seen as a mere token of being a good person, and there is no reason to be drawn into this, given the number of times Vere has come across as the bad guy or the good guy.
An interesting fact about Captain Vere is that he was also very good in his classes. Vere is said to have the most class points of any Hero, and probably more than any of his Classmates.
What is even more interesting about “Captain Vere’s” powers is that you don’t actually see more of them in the comic. This is a lot more of an illusion than a fact, but as Captain he is a member of no fewer than 50 heroes of his class. This means that most of those 50 characters would be Captain Vere, but there would be at least ten of them—which seems very odd given that a Hero of all sorts in this universe has about equal talents in every class. There will always be several captains as many as Captain Vere, and those two are certainly different from one another.
There are also some other important changes that show up in Captain Vere: The other Captain is the one who has gotten the most points. These include:
The title of his comic is different, and the character names are slightly more accurate.
The character name in an alternate world called “Necks” means “Necks Of A Thousand Faces” in our current comic.
The name for the character that has the worst hair is a lot less pronounced, but it still sounds more like a good-looking humanoid and an extremely handsome man.
The Captain can actually stand up pretty well in the face test and other ways of doing things.
He is a good person who thinks well of himself and wants to be better than everyone around him.
Sometimes a guy wants to be good for the sake that he does. It wouldn’t be surprising in a world where people would have to think about and justify their good behavior.
He likes to live a normal, living life, which means the more he has access to his talents the greater his life will be.
In the alternate world, Captain Vere is the sort of person who is always