Thursday, 30 March: Melville, Billy Budd (complete)

Web-highlighter: Tallia Ortiz (final exams on Billy Budd)

Introduction: I found selections on Hermann Melville’s Billy Budd pertaining to the gothic, moral complexity, and classical literature in final exams from 2004 and 2003.

LITR 4232 2004 final exam
Sample Answers to Question 1
on the Gothic

Just as Poe uses the gothic to foreshadow his inevitable loss of love, Hermann Melville also uses the gothic in a similar way to foreshadow the death of Billy Budd. Yet Melville’s use of the gothic would more likely be compared to Hawthorne’s gothic. Melville’s gothic appears in a much subtler form, almost imperceptible unless one knows what to look for. Consider the passage when Billy Budd is accused of mutiny: “Not at first did Billy take it in. When he did, the rose-tan of his cheek looked struck as by white leprosy. He stood like one impaled and gagged” (2692). The gothic becomes apparent in the light and dark represented in Billy’s face when he becomes “white.” The gothic is further revealed when Billy takes on the form of death, not only is he pale but he becomes “impaled and gagged” as if rigidity of death has set in. The appeal of the gothic here adds a since of strangeness and almost a supernatural since. As if Billy can see into the future and has seen his impending death. In which case the passage becomes another foreshadowing of emanate doom. Yet it should be noticed that it is not the emotion evoked that is emphasized. Instead it is the doom of Billy’s future; Melville merely uses the gothic to emphasize this emotion, because like Hawthorne, Melville is not concerned purely with emotion of the reader but with a message about the complexity of sin. [BP]

LITR 4232 2004 final exam
Sample Answers to Question 2
on Moral Complexity

            Herman Melville makes his introduction of characters in Billy Budd quite lengthy.  Each character is given a strong personality that represents distinct traits in the human character.  These characters are most unique in Melville’s style because they have attractive and repulsive attributes at the same time.  This contradiction of each character makes them easy to identify with because it is almost considered human to be somewhat contradictory.

            The first character that Melville introduces in a contradictory way is Billy Budd.  He is described by Melville as having a “degree of intelligence going along with the unconventional rectitude of a sound human creature”.  This description makes us think that Budd is stable and dependable.  A few sentences later we see a strong contrast to Billy’s intelligence when Melville describes him as “in many respects …little more than a sort of upright barbarian”.  Now our perception of Budd is more conflicting.  He is able to be intelligent and brutish at the same time.  Billy reminds us of someone who is innocent, yet ignorant at the same time, allowing him to have great faults later on in the story. . .  . [JL]

Answers to Question 4 on Classic, Popular, and Representative Literature

Spring 2003 Sample Student Answers to Final Exam

          Classical literature is that which is typically studied in the university and is considered academic in nature.  They are typically harder to read to due their elevated language and self-conscious style.  They contain religious and mythical illusions, but are ambiguous concerning morality and truth.  In their language and ambiguity they provide  the reader with an intellectual challenge.  Initially these books may receive critical praise, but are not often high in publication, though they may become so over a long span of time.  The perfect example of a classic author is Herman Melville, author of “Moby Dick,” and “Billy Budd.”  Recognized by many and read by but a few, Melville’s writing and his life are truly “classic.”  Melville, after traveling the seas and witnessing the brutality of man, wrote in a way that attacked and challenged his society.  Upon his failure to make a living by his writing, and the recipient of much criticism, he complained to Nathaniel Hawthorne, (another great author of classical literature) that he could not make a living by telling the truth about humanity.  Using elevated language, many allusions (religious and philosophical), and ambiguous language he persisted in writing his challenge to humanity anyway.  In “Billy Budd,” his last work, Melville brought all of these elements of classic literature to a form of perfection, and the ambiguous message/meaning that this writing leaves the reader with creates yet another vital characteristic of the classic, the desire to read the book again. [KV]

Conclusion: Hermann Melville’s Billy Budd, obviously leaves an impression (negative or positive) on an individual, what impression did it make for yourself?