Herman Mellville's Billy Budd is and extremely divisive novel when one considers the dissension it has generated. The criticism has essentially focused around the argument of acceptance vs. resistance. On the one hand we can read the story as accepting the hanging of Billy Budd as the necessary ends of justice. We can read Vere's condemnation as a necessary military action performed in the name of preserving order aboard the Indomitable. On the other hand, we can argue that Billy's execution as the greatest example of injustice. The basic question at stake is: Is Vere's conduct right or wrong? In either case, since Billy Budd is an ethical text, why is there an absence of the emotion guilt? Here we have a story about two murders. Billy kills Claggart and Vere (Although indirectly, the decision is ultimately his) kills Budd. Neither of the murderers show guilt in the form of remorse. For a narrati....

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Number Of Words: 502

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