Novels Billy Budd And Moby Dick example essay topic

Monomania Written By Monomania Outline 1) Introduction a) Contrasts and comparisons introduced for: i) Moby-Dick ii) Billy Budd Compare 2) Fate and the role it plays in the two novels 3) Obsession and the role it plays in the two novels 4) The role and appearance of religion in the two novels Contrast 5) Openness and recognition of monomania in the main characters 6) Origin of the evil nature of main characters 7) The concept of innocence and how it does or does not apply to the main characters 8) Conclusion a) Contrast and comparisons reintroduced for: i) Moby Dick ii) Billy Budd Monomania The novels Moby- Dick and Billy Budd, both by Herman Melville, are classic novels featuring adventure on the high seas. The two novels share some similarities but are also different in many ways. The novels both deal with the idea of fate and the role it plays in the lives of the characters. Obsession, to the point of monomania, is a driving force behind the actions of the main characters of both novels.

Also, religion is present in the novels in the form of many symbols and carefully worded descriptions. However, many differences occur in the novels; among the most obvious is the concealment of Claggart's obsession compared to Ahab's open display and confession of his monomania. Furthermore, Ahab turns into an obsessed and evil man while Claggart is innately evil. Innocence also appears in both novels but the novels differ in that one portrays the preservation of innocence while another shows the loss of this quality.

In the novels Moby-Dick and Billy Budd the idea of fate governing the actions of the characters is present. Several main characters from both novels possess particularly fatalistic natures. Captain Ahab, for example, believes that " the path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run" (Melville (1), 161). A literary critic notes that "Ahab becomes sure of the fact that it is fate that pushes him towards the white whale" (Parke, 584). Furthermore, towards the end of the novel Ahab realizes that fate is forcing him to continue despite having reasons to avoid the "final confrontation which he knows to be the hopeless" (Walcutt, 4). In a moment of despair he asks" what is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural loving's and longings, so keep I pushing, and crowding, and jamming myself on all the time?" (Melville (1), 493) The answer, is fate and Ahab realizing this tells Starbuck", By heaven man, we are turned round and round in this world, like yonder windlass and Fate is the handspike " (Melville (1), 493).

Billy Budd is also an instrument of fate. Billy strikes Claggart and as he lays there dying on the floor the first words Captain Vere utters are " fated boy" (Melville (2), 72). Fate led Billy to his death; he was the only crewman impressed from the Rights of Man and he "made no demur" at being singled out (Melville (2), 3) One critic notes that " Billy's demise is brought about by a combination of his own weaknesses and evil influences that fate has decided to pit against his innate goodness" (Phillips, 10). Indeed one cannot help but see that a clash between the evil Claggart and Baby Budd as inevitable.

The reader is witness to a chain of events; from the impressment, to the soup incident, to the lies of Claggart that lead up to the inevitable death of Billy; as one critic noted " Melville constructed this novel with the inevitability of fate itself" (Gunn, 4). The conclusion of the novel though quite sad is in no way surprising as Melville makes it clear from the beginning that Billy is destined to be the victim of evil. Obsession plays an important role in both novels as it is out of obsession that Ahab chases the white whale and Claggart chases Billy until their respective deaths. Ahab is obsessed with the white whale and tells his crew that " I 'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up" (Melville (1), 156). A critic comments that "Captain Ahab's unrelenting pursuit of the great whale is an obsession" that forces him " to act in ways that are self-destructive" (Gunn, 2). Ahab's obsession with the whale stems in part from the injury that it caused him but also from the fact that he views the whale as " all that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all the truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick" (Melville (1), 175).

The critic D. H Lawrence perhaps sums it up best when he says", Ahab is a monomaniac. Moby Dick is his monomania. Moby Dick must DIE, or Ahab can't live any longer" (Lawrence, 584). Similarly, an obsessed Claggart persecutes Billy Budd until he provokes Billy into killing him.

Claggart takes an instant disliking for Billy from their first meeting. He begins to hate him fervently and "seizes upon the soup spill as an indication of Billy's malice and uses it as an excuse to increase the level of his own enmity" (Phillips, 18). One critic noted that", John Claggart's hatred for the sailor (Billy) everybody loves" for no real reason at all " is an obvious obsession" (Gunn, 2). Claggart's hate begins to boil over in the small confines of the ship and soon turns into a veritable " monomania... eating its way deeper and deeper in him. Something decisive must come of it" (Melville (2), 60).

Before long, Claggart lets his monomania get the best of him and he falsely accuses Billy using a hurriedly fabricated lie. Captain Vere challenges Claggart's accusation of Billy by saying", Do you come to me... with so foggy a tale?" . Unfazed, Claggart feeds off power from his hateful obsession, draws himself erect, looks the Captain in the eyes and swears that his story is true; such is the extent of Claggart's obsession with Billy Budd. Religion appears in both novels, although it is not always easily discernable and is instead interwoven into the novels. The idea of good and evil is broached more often than any other aspect of religion, through the clever use of symbols and carefully worded descriptions. The white whale, otherwise known as Moby Dick, is meant to represent the evil of the world.

Ahab realizes that, although he may be after Moby Dick he is also after what he represents for he tells Starbuck", He (Moby Dick) tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sine wing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent or be the white whale principal. I will wreak that hate upon him" (Melville (1), 157). Thus, Ahab's struggle to kill the white whale takes a deep religious meaning and as one critic suggested", His quest for Moby Dick is in part a metaphysical one, for he is in revolt against the existence of evil itself. His vindictiveness... is against the eternal fact of evil" (Parke, 569). Furthermore, the whale's whiteness holds a special religious significance as the color white " is at once the most meaning symbol of spiritual things nay, the very veil of the Christian's Deity; and yet should be as it is, the intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind" (Melville (1), 185).

A literary critic believes that", In abstracting and exploring one quality of the whale- its whiteness- Melville generates whole worlds of suggestions and new meanings for Christianity... and beyond" (Walcutt, 5). Ahab and the whalers in their quest to vanquish the ultimate evil", become the seekers of an ultimate truth, which retreats farther and farther into the forbidden depths of the remotest seas" (Walcutt, 5). There are also several references to religion in the novel Billy Budd pertaining mainly to Billy Budd and Claggart. In fact, "many scholars read Billy Budd as a parable of good and evil" or even " as a retelling of the story of Christ" (Gunn, 3). Good is represented by Billy who " in many respects was little more than a sort of upright barbarian, much such perhaps as Adam presumably might have been ere the urbane Serpent wriggled himself into his company" (Melville (2), 11). Claggart on the other hand", represents evil" and his "wickedness is causeless and seemingly endless" (Phillips, 4).

Their differences are so obvious to the trained eye that upon the death of Claggart, Captain Vere, caught up in the moment frantically tells the surgeon", It is the divine judgment on Ananias! Look! Struck dead by an angel of god! Yet the angel must hang!" (Melville (2), 73) This is an important statement as it refers to the Bible and yet applies to the happenings in the book. A critic believes that " Vere associates the gross deception, in the bible by Ananias, with Claggart who in his depravity has exceeded all bounds of propriety with his lies as did Ananias of the past... Billy therefore represents an angel of God sent to strike down Claggart" (Phillips, 22).

Captain Vere realizes all this as he watches the events unfold before him and it is for this reason that he feels such guilt in sentencing Billy to the gallows. The last moments of Billy's life are religiously portrayed in an effort to make his religious significance clear"; At the same moment it chanced that the vapory fleece hanging low in the East was shot through with a soft glory as of the fleece of the Lamb of God seen in mystical vision, and simultaneously therewith, watched by the wedged mass of upturned faces, Billy ascended; and, took the full rose of the dawn (Melville (2), 102). Despite the numerous similarities between the novels Moby- Dick and Billy Budd many differences nonetheless exist between the two novels. One of the most obvious differences is the contrast between Ahab's visible monomania to Claggart's concealed monomania. From the beginning of the novel the reader becomes aware that Captain Ahab is greatly obsessed. Despite being able to conceal the fact from the Pequod's owners, once aboard the ship, his monomania grips his mind and body completely.

A critic describes Ahab as " He is what our wildest, most egoistic, most purely destructive malevolence could wish to be; this old Quaker skipper... obsessed to the point of monomania with the will to destroy the hated thing (Moby Dick) " (Arvin, 550). Ahab makes the object of his obsession known early on to the crew by telling them " And this is what you have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both sides of land, and over all sides of the earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men, will ye splice hands on it now? " (Melville (1), 156) The crew quickly concludes he is quite mad and even Ahab comments that " They think me mad- Starbuck does; but I'm demoniac, I am madness maddened " (Melville (1), 160). Ahab does not deny to himself the fact that he is mad and therefore does not feel it is necessary to conceal his obsession from his crew; instead he asks that they join him in his mad hunt for the whale. The crew eagerly consent and rush to ready the harpoons and boats, Ahab madly paces the deck, scours charts in his cabin and does not sleep; they plough through vicious storms under full sail, stop to converse with other boats only when they have information about the white whale; and all thoughts revolve only around Moby Dick; such is the influence of Ahab's obsession upon the crew.

Is it any wonder then that a critic comments that", and there you have them... a mad ship, under a mad captain, in a mad, fanatic's hunt " (Lawrence, 585). The openness Captain Ahab displays regarding his monomania is in direct contrast to Claggart in Billy Budd. Claggart takes great pains to conceal his obsessive hatred of Billy from everyone. During the soup incident, Claggart light heartedly reproaches Billy with a smile on his face but when he turns away " must have momentarily worn some expression less guarded than that of the bitter smile, usurping the face from the heart-some distorting expression perhaps, for a drummer-boy... headed in the opposite direction... was strangely disconcerted by his aspect" (Melville (2), 39).

The incredible lengths Claggart goes to conceal his obsession are all the more alarming because as one critic puts it " Claggart's inherently evil nature, however, is all the more insidious because he conceals it. The naturally depraved man, in complete possession of his faculties, may be civilized, thoroughly self-controlled, outwardly respectable, characterized by moderation, too proud to be petty, neither sensuous nor foul, and yet be thoroughly evil, nonetheless " (Phillips, 18). Indeed, although Captain Vere suspects that Claggart may have lied to him he cannot rule in favor of Claggart because he never openly showed animosity towards Billy; as a result Claggart's ability to conceal his monomania leads to Billy's death. Another important difference between the two novels is the origin of evil.

That is, the difference between the evil of Captain Ahab brought about because of Moby Dick and the innate evil of Claggart. Captain Ahab is not a naturally evil man; it is the white whale that turns him into an evil monomaniac. A critic comments", Moby Dick, the great white whale, tore off Ahab's leg at the knee. Should have torn off both his legs, and a bit more besides. But Ahab doesn't think so. Ahab is now a monomaniac.

It is quite clear therefore, that Ahab is a victim of sorts and a critic goes as far as to describe him as a " fated loser and Ahab is tragic" (Parke, 565-567) Ahab was normal until this terrible tragedy as he tells the crew", Aye Starbuck; aye, my hearties all round; it was Moby Dick that dismast ed me; Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now... Aye, aye! It was that accursed white whale that razed me... and I'll chase him... round perdition's flames before I give him up" (Melville (1), 156). Towards the end of the novel " in a rare instance of questioning his obsession Ahab wonders about his free will and his prior identity"; he becomes quite saddened at the damage that Moby Dick has caused to his life but he realizes that his obsession is now too far advanced for him to ever return to his former self (Martin, 24). The evil in Claggart however, cannot be attributed to a specific incident. Claggart possesses a " mania of an evil nature, not engendered by vicious training or corrupting books or licentious living, but born with him and innate, in short a depravity according to nature" (Melville (2), 43).

His fundamentally evil nature thoroughly confuses Billy because he cannot find the cause for Claggart's resentment against him. Billy does not realize that " Claggart is simply evil at heart... enslaved to his own evil ideas, driven ceaselessly in pursuit of selfish ends and looking for any possible opening to convince himself that his hatred for Billy is justified and necessary" (Phillips, 20). Claggart cannot help himself from being evil, it is his nature and it is for this reason that many critics believe the novel to be a " retelling of the story of Christ" for "Claggart's elemental evil" violently clashes with Billy's goodness; resulting in both their deaths (Gunn, 2). The innocence of the two main characters of the two novels differs greatly.

Captain Ahab begins the novel already terribly scared and maimed. He has a large scar down his face that was " obtained in an elemental strife at sea" and a " barbaric white leg upon which he partly stood" (Melville (1), 120). The first attack by Moby Dick upon him causes his countenance to change completely, for " On the homeward voyage... his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another; and so inter fusing, made him mad... at intervals during the passage, he was a raving lunatic" (Melville (1), 175). Indeed, Captain Ahab is already obsessed to the point of monomania when he steps aboard the Pequod for the whaling voyage. He has been robbed of all his innocence, for as one critic put it", Ahab's encounter with the white whale absolved him of all prior longings, cares and restrictions; in short it robbed him of the innocence with which he perceived the world around him " (Martin, 15). Ahab comes to view his encounter with Moby Dick as an encounter with evil itself, he is tainted from the experience both physically and mentally and his only recourse is to kill Moby Dick.

Clearly then, Ahab is a man with no innocence left in his character for he has" revolted and leagued himself now with darkness " (Parke, 571). Ahab's lack of innocence is in direct contrast to Billy Budd, whose death is in fact caused because of his innocence. Billy is incapable of planned evil actions or evil thoughts, he is " in many respects little more than a sort of upright barbarian, much such perhaps as Adam presumably might have been ere the urbane Serpent wriggled himself into his company" (Melville (2), 11). In fact, a critic describes Billy as having" striking good looks, and affable nature and an extraordinary, even disturbing innocence" (Phillips, 3).

His innocence is such, one critic argues, that it leaves him " unable to see and understand evil in others" (Gunn, 5) Thus, it is correct to state that Billy is blinded by his own openhearted nature and as a result" he misjudges the malevolent Claggart" (Phillips. 3). It is clear then that Billy is innately good and that evil intentions have disastrous consequences when they are applied to him. Claggart causes Billy's death and yet Billy also must take part of the blame because "he cannot comprehend evil or defend himself adequately against it" (Phillips, 4).

Billy's death is therefore caused because of innocence and thus his death is the strongest evidence the reader is presented with to support the fact that Billy is indeed, innocent. The novels Billy Budd and Moby-Dick are excellent novels. They both contain non-stop action and contain powerful characters and meaningful moral lessons. The two novels are similar in the respect that they both deal with the topics of fate, obsession and religion. However, despite their many similarities they are also different in many ways.

The openness the characters portray concerning their respective monomania differ as does their evil nature and innocence. Both novels are classic pieces of literature and critics are correct to highly praise such impressive novels which so interest some readers that their obsession borders, most ironically, on monomania.

Bibliography

Arvin, Newton. Henry Melville. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1950.
Martin, Melissa. Moby Dick. New York. Park Publishing, 2000.
1) Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. New York. Bantam Books, 1967.
Melville, Herman. Moby Dick. With a foreword by Charles Walcutt. New York. Bantam Books, 1967.
2) Melville, Herman. Billy Budd. New York. Tor Books, 1992.
Melville, Herman. Billy Budd. With a foreword by James Gunn. New York. Tor Books, 1992.
Lawrence, Daniel. Studies in Classic American Literature. New York: the Viking Press, 1964.
Parke, John. Seven Moby Dicks. New England Quarterly, 1955,319.
Phillips, Brian. Billy Budd. New York. Park Publishing, 2000.