Billy Budd, written by Herman Melville (best known for Moby Dick) in 1891, the year of Melville’s death, and finally published posthumously in 1924 in England and 1962 in the US. This is a book that has continued to draw critical acclaim 132 years after it was written. I found it on a list of “must read” books, and I was intrigued by the reviewer’s favorable comments about Melville’s description of sociopathy. I wondered how an antisocial personality disorder might have looked to Melville so long ago, 70 years before the first diagnostic manual was published in the US by the American Psychiatric Association 1952, a diagnostic classification that has been repeatedly revised since then.
The first thing that struck me about Billy Budd was the elegant descriptive language used by Melville. His vocabulary was challenging to me at times, and I was thankful for Kindle’s built-in dictionary, something I referred to many times in the course of reading this short book, only about 100 pages. Reading Melville’s prose provided me with a sense of joy that I don’t often experience while reading. I slowed down my reading pace so I wouldn’t miss this experience.
Budd was known as the “Handsome Sailor.” Not only was he attractive, but his presentation was pleasant and unassuming. He was not a worldly man and he was not educated. Melville called Budd a “child-man.” Yet, Budd seemed to easily excel at all the tasks he performed. Given his humility, he was well-liked by everyone in the story except for Master-at-arms John Claggert. Claggert, rather than warming up to Budd, had an instant and intense hatred for him. Claggert himself was much the opposite of Budd. Educated, articulate, but clumsy in movement and in his human interactions. Claggert was obviously jealous of the ease with which Budd moved through life and the ease with which he interacted with others. Claggert was determined to find a way to undo Budd’s successes, and he was able to just that both skillfully and cleverly.
In describing Claggert who had a such a different opinion of Budd than anyone else, Melville wrote, “Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blindingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity. In pronounced cases there is no question about them. But in some supposed cases, in various degrees supposedly less pronounced to draw the exact line of demarcation few will undertake tho’ for a fee some professional experts will. There is nothing namable but that some men will undertake to do it for pay.” (Isn’t it interesting that Melville comments about the motive and reliability of legal experts on such topics?)
Nearly 100 years before Melville was writing this book, he explained that the year 1797 was a unique time in the history of the British Naval forces. There had been a famous mutiny earlier in the year, known as “The Great Mutiny.” The mutiny desperately frightened all of the ships officers in the Navy, and apparently the mutiny resulted in a loss of able seaman for the fleet. Budd was actually conscripted or impressed, which meant he was taken into custody and ordered to serve on the ship, a common custom at that moment in time. Officers were short-handed and wary of the men who were working under their direction. There was no room for tolerance of anyone who defied orders. Claggert privately told Captain Edward Fairfax Vere of the warship Indomitable that after a skirmish with another ship, he suspected Budd’s movements in the action had been less than effective, to him, purposely so. Although Captain Vere had actually admired Budd, and although he suspected Claggert might have ulterior motives for reporting him, Captain Vere chose to have a private meeting with both Claggert and Budd. Claggert was instructed by the Captain to tell Budd what he had told him. Clever with his words, Claggert did just that. But Budd was not clever with his words, and in fact was totally tongue tied in his attempt to respond to the allegations. Unable to speak, Budd struck down Claggert with a single punch, and unexpectedly, as even a surprise to Budd, Claggert instantly died from the blow.
I’ll leave the details at the end of the book to you to read, but justice had to be served, and Budd had just struck and killed his senior officer. Especially in this post mutiny era, British Naval Justice had to be quickly served. The Captain agonized over the decision he would make, and Melville wrote “In the jugglery of circumstances preceding and attending the event on board the Indomitable, and in the light of that martial code whereby it was formally to be judged, innocence and guilt personified in Claggert and Budd in effect changed places.”
I think the reviewer that I read prior to diving into this book probably got Claggert’s psychiatric diagnosis wrong. Claggert certain had a personality disorder, but there is too little evidence presented to know that he was a sociopath. Confronted with Claggert today, I would probably opine that he was a borderline personality disorder with significant sociopathic traits. Again, the best part of this book was Melville’s descriptions of how his characters viewed their individual perceptions so differently. It is a story of murder, but one with surprisingly pithy descriptions of conscious and unconscious internal processes of the primary characters.
Do yourself a favor and read this novelette. If you’ve been a follower of this blog, you will probably love as much as I did.
No comments:
Post a Comment