Evilness beyond comprehension Essay Example for Free

Evilness beyond comprehension Essay This story depicts how a certain innocent person was condemned and was sentenced to death for a crime he did but with an innocent motive. The story goes on around a certain person’s life in a ship where he was said to be one of the crew. Billy as a character depicted in the story is a person whose innocence can not be changed into hatred for other people. Though his surrounding is full of people with evil motives, he is still into trusting them with full innocence. Evilness beyond comprehension Such evilness is beyond the main character’s understanding, and his being weak causes him to lose his sense of defending himself. With this state of the character’s condition, some people around him tend to abuse his weakness, such as the character which is depicted as an evil person in the story who’s Claggart. Claggart as an evil influence in the story caused Billy to use a brutal way to express Billy’s madness because he is speechless; Billy was then susceptible in making an attack due to the evil atmosphere on the ship. By Billy’s innocence, he was dragged to the wilderness of violence. It is beyond his comprehention that it is indeed the evil’s intention to ruin the goodness in his heart. Indeed the evilness had him offguard that had caused him to be condemned. The writer depicted his main character’s innocence as something to be really loved and liked by other people but also a personality which is something to be pitied about. Billy depicting Jesus Christ In simple but complex ways, the main character was said to be somehow depicting Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for the betterment of everyone. He was, as Jesus was condemned to death though they are both innocent. It is showed in the story that the main character’s innocence is really a great lost of its essence in the humankind; though it is said to be wrong depicting Christ’s figure in an ordinary man such as Billy who is said to be an unsound person. The distinction between the divine characters of Christ with that of Billy is that; Billy will not intentionally give up his life or sacrifice himself for other people’s good. On the contrary, Christ accepted being condemned to death for people in the world’s salvation. Another way in which the story of Billy could depict the story of Christ is the story when Pontius Pilate tends to wash his hand to show that he is not responsible for Christ condemnation. On the other hand in Billy’s story, Captain Vere pushed through the military view of law and condemned Billy because he was thinking about what his mates would think of him if he will not punish Billy with what they think would suit the latter for his crime. Both of the character who’s Pontius and Vere, are playing innocent for an unjust case. Between innocence and evil, the author depicted Claggart as the evil one, and goodness was depicted by Billy. The character of Billy in the story is paralleled to many of the bibbles characters and some of those are Adam which is said to be the first man who is born innocent in the world and was also presented as having the same figure of Christ. On the contrary, Claggart was depicted as characterized by evil wher he was paralleled to Satan’s characteristics and figures who motivated and/or influenced Billy to do evil. Billy died simply because he could not defend himself from the evilness that’s in this world, he could not understand the role of evil, and mostly he could not do any defense from evil because he don’t understand what is meant by being evil. Conflict after Billy’s death After Billy had been condemned, there had been a lot of conflicts that had happened after his execution; such as the Bellipotent engaging in a ship war where captain Vere died. The continuous spread of Billy’s story which had became a chronicle for the others, and mysteriously there were a continuous condemnation that happened to different ports in the manner that Billy was condemned. Themes There were themes considered in the story such as a certain Conscience Versus Law this was shown when captain Vere had a confusion of how to decide for Billy’s case. Captain Vere as a friend, he had difficulty on deciding what to do with Billy’s case because Billy was a dear friend to him but then Captain Vere’s responsibility as an authority caused him to sentence Billy for condemnation. After that, the captain was chased by the thoughts of Billy and was bothered by his own conscience because he know that he did not consider Billy’s reasons until he died and repeatedly uttered his friend’s name. Another one is a person’s Vulnerability of Innocence; the story was all about the main character’s innocence versus the evilness around him. It is said that innocence versus evilness is different from goodness versus evilness. Billy was a person who is innocent about almost everything which caused his weakness to do evil. He was a person who is morally weak and so naive about evilness because it is shown that evilness is beyond his comprehension. The story showed how Billy’s heart was corrupted and changed into evilness because he was unable to distinguish which is evil when he encountered it. The result is that he let alone violence to come out of him that caused him to kill Claggart unintentionally. Individual Versus Society is also considered as a theme of the story. In the story, the author tried to depict how the society pushed its forces for a certain person to be individually oppressed, that the society limits a certain person of his/her being as an individual. It is shown in the story when Captain Vere encountered difficulty dealing with Billy’s case; he had difficulty in considering what the society wants according to his obligation and what he feels. In deciding for the main characters condemnation, Captain Vere considered his obligation and followed what the law implies; hence he knows and feels that Billy is an innocent person by nature. He then as a leader by profession, pushed through to the jurors about Billy’s execution. It is depicted in the story how society dictates a certain person of how to decide, that their view is more important than that of a persons own view. Considered law The law is made by a constitution for all the people to follow in order to maintain a peacefull world to live in hence a law can still be bend or altered by the people who work on it such as jury and society. They can change law according to their own views and consideration thus it can also be altered through the views of others. One example of a circumstance in the story is when Captain Vere sentenced Billy to death though he knew to himself that Billy is innocent. He decided to condemn billy because hye was afraid of what other people would think if he considered Billy and gave him a simple punishment. The law which Billy’s case was considered was in a military law where the people who are considered as enemies are brutally punished. And that the law was very different from the law in which Billy was supposed to be considered; in a civilian law, where considerations to human were given. There are a lot of strategies and different views when it comes to law, but the best way in viewing law in which it is not considered in Billy’s case was seeking for a principle that would lead them into a just result to both sides. On the contrary, the law which is depicted in the story is really unjust. The loss of correct judgment of the law in the story was shown when Billy was condemned even without hearing his side of the story or considering his motive why he had done such crime. Billy’s justice was also deprived when the ship’s captain did not tell the true story about what had really happened, instead, he pushed the case through until poor Billy was sentenced death. In the context of the story, mercy came in when Billy’s death was given justice. It happened when the ship, Bellipotent, lost from a ship war and captain Vere was wounded and eventually did not survived. In the captain’s last minutes of his life, he was continuously murmuring Billy’s name. This only depicts that â€Å"evil ones who do not give justice are also not given justice in the end†. â€Å"Those who deprive other’s life are also deprived in life in the end†. What the story meant for the readers We can learn a lot of moral values in the story. We can learn in the story that innocence is indeed an admirable character hence it should not cover a person’s knowledge about evilness because it could cause a person to be easily influenced in doing evil. We can also learn from the story that innocence could cause a certain person weakness and vulnerability that could be the main cause for him/her to be deprived by others by his own life. Thesis This story only tends to show the readers how difficult it is to live in this world full of evil forcess thus a person like Billy is innocent about such thing. It depicts how a human would only suffer of his innocence in this kind of world. And that innocence is vulnerable to evilness and deprivation to life. as the character was deprived of his life due to his innocence and lack of comprehention about evilness. Also that the law which is supopsed to give justice; it is the one that deprives people by not considering a certain accused persons statement or side. The kind of law in the story is the one that manipulates a person to view the case in a right manner according to the true essence of justice (Melville, 1924). Works Cited Melville, H. (1924). Billy Budd [Electronic Version] from http://www. sparknotes. com/lit/billybudd/canalysis. html.