Billy Budd: Good Versus Evil Although their are many themes incorporated into the novella “ Billy Budd” written by Herman Melville on main theme stays consistent throughout the novella, the theme of good versus evil. In this theme Melville focuses on two main characters Billy Budd and John Claggart. Billy Budd is used in this novella to represent good in this theme while John Claggart is used to represent evil. This theme represented by Budd and Claggart is used by Melville for the purpose of discussing the nature of man. Representing Good in the theme of “ good versus evil”, Billy Budd is used to depict Rousseau’s noble savage. Melville consistently, throughout