The "Discovery Scene" in Billy Budd

Abstract

THE ''DISCOVERY SCENE" IN BILLY BUDD IN 1952, writing in the Pacific Spectator, Tyros Hillway made a surprising statemeIlt about Professors Coxe and Chapman's dramatic adaptation of Herman Melville's Billy Budd. According to Mr. Hillway, ... the final interview between Billy and Captain Vere could not have been what Coxe and Chapman make of it; for they have Billy going to his doom bewildered and still appalled by the fact that he must suffer. In the book, on the other hand, he has clearly come at this point not only to an understanding of his fate but even to a willingness to accept it. As for the exact words used by Captain Vere in explaining matters to Billy, Melville, indeed, leaves us in ignorance.1 Not only do I disagree with Mr. Hillway, but I also feel that the exact opposite is true: in the play, Billy Budd is no longer bewildered when he climbs to his death, and he has finally recognized his tragic flaw. In fact, Coxe and Chapman have made Billy a kinetic character, whereas Melville's is static. In the novel there is no evidence to support the statement that Billy ''has clearly come at this point to an understanding of his fate." On the contrary, when Billy forgives Captain Vere, he does so out of the same blind ignorance and naivete that have characterized his short life. Let us look at the evidence. In the novel,2 Billy is a virile, handsome, ingenuous, good-natured, competent sailor who is loved by his shipmates . Melville identifies him with Alexander the Great (p. 135), Apollo (p. 141), Hercules (p. 145), Achilles (p. 207), a Catholic priest (p. 139), "a condertmed vestal priestess in the moment of being buried alive" (p. 226), and "the young Isaac" (p. 252). All of these allusions enhance the figure of Billy, adding to his stature and suggesting to the reader that there is a symbolical level of meaning which is the heart of the story. To even the most superficial reader, the novel is filled with religious overtones, Billy being equat~d with no less a figure than Jesus Christ. The Christian imagery is especially evident at the end of. the book in the description of Billy's crucifixion. Unlike Christ, however, Billy has one obvious physical flaw-his stammering. Melville tells us that like the beautiful Georgiana in Hawthorne's ''The Birthmark," Billy has one imperfection-the inability to articulate when emotionally disturbed. But 'that is not the lad's only 1. "Billy Budd: Melvine's Human Sacrifice," Pacific Spectator, VI (Summer 1952), 342-3. 2. Herman Melvine, Baly Budd, in Melville's Baly Budd, ed. F. Barron Freeman (Cambridge , 1948). AU references to the novel are to this edition. 339 340 MODERN DRAMA February flaw. Billy also suffers from ignorance. Even Pip in Moby-Dick has more intelligence than Billy. The other sailors recognize this limitation and nickname him "Baby" Budd. The symbolic significance of his last name also reinforces this idea. Billy is an easy victim of Claggart because he is blind to the evil which the Master-at-Arms represents. He is unable to comprehend Dansker's enigmatic warnings. He is, says Melville, like Adam before knowledge (pp. 147 and 219). A close study of the figures of speech used to describe Billy reveals not only -allusions to the famous biblical, mythological, and historical figures already mentioned, but also references to various lower forms of life, namely animals and birds. Thus Billy is identified with a goldfinch (p. 137), a 'Dlood horse" (p. 146), a St. Bernard (p. 147), an "iiliterate nightingale" (p. 147), a heifer (p. 193), and a "young horse" (p. 201); at the court-martial, he has a look of "dumb expressiveness not unlike that which a dog of generous breed might turn upon his master seeking in his face some elucidation of a previous gesture ambiguous to the canine intelligence" (p. 241). . It is my contention that this canine intelligence is Billy's tragic flaw. His heroic virtues are apt to dazzle us into losing sight of the fact that "a barbarian Billy radically was" (p. 260:. Nowhere in the novel can I...