Does Billy receive a fair trial Herman Melville Billy Budd Essay

Does Billy receive a fair trial Herman Melville Billy Budd - Essay typeThe outcome of the trial goes to show how a composite plot, ably supported by ingenuity of narrative techniques, can be made analogous to a set of clandestine attributes of legal procedures. The thesis question to be resolved in this paper is whether Billy Budd receives a just trial or not, pursuance the crime he commits after being charged with mutinous provocations.Judgment on the fate of Billy is legitimized per se by a number of factors that be ingrained in the protagonists characteristic features as well as in some external stimuli. Minkowitz argues that while Billy embodies moral commodity and grace and is well liked among his colleagues, the ships master-at-arms John Claggart is sinister (4). This perplexes the readers for they know who the culprit is according to the law. But mere understanding of the legal duty fails to provide an accurate picture of the authors intentions. Captain Vere, for instance, is portrayed as a person of contradictory dispositions. He is stuck between the loftier ethics of law, which he is supposed to adhere to out of his professional responsibilities, and the apparent leniency of divine arbitrator. He is the only person who knows that Billy is both clean-handed and guilty (Parker 37) and yet, he must convict Billy for his crime.It is apparent that the execution of Billy Budd symbolically represents a justified animosity into a retributive righteousness (Melville 78). The question or so whether Billy Budd receives justice or not is answered by YannellaVere prejudges the case against Billy, uses irregular proceedings to convict him, and then executes him in a gross miscarriage of justiceVeres conservative rationale for hanging Billy, of course, is that it will silence and tame the sailors, who otherwise will take the captains inaction as a sign of weakness and an excuse to rebel (27-8).It is, therefore, quite clear that Billy Budd does not receive