Billy Budd Chapters 8-14

2.     How are the tensions between Billy and Claggart developed?  What are they symbolic of?

The tensions between Billy and Claggart are developed because of their extremely different personalities, and because of Claggart’s envy of Billy. Billy is a very handsome, kind, perfect sailor, while Claggart is old, mean, and battered from his years at sea. Billy is symbolic of the good, while Claggart is symbolic of the evil. Claggart is envious of Billy because of Billy’s perfection. Claggart wants to be nice like Billy, but like the narrator speculates, Claggart is actually physically unable to be nice. Despite how nice Claggart wants to be, he just can’t be anything but evil. When explaining the relationship between Claggart and Billy, the narrator says “In view of the marked contrast between the persons of the twain, it is more than probably that when the master-at-arms in the scene last given applied to the sailor the proverb ‘Handsome is as handsome does,’ he there let escape an ironic inkling, not caught by the young sailors who hear it, as to what it was that had first moved him against Billy, namely his significant personal beauty” (pg 327). This shows exactly how their tensions are developed – because of Billy’s perfectness.
http://globaldebateblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/bahrain-students-debate-good-and-evil.html

Explanation For Photo:
I Thought This Photo Showed Billy (Left) And Claggart (Right) Because Of Their Personality Difference. Billy Is More Of A Nice Person Where As Claggart Is A Bit More Evil And Mean. I Also Thought The Use Of Rubber Ducks Worked Well With The Whole Sailor Theme (:

7.     Discuss the incident of the spilled soup as a revelation into Claggart’s character and motivations.

In Chapter 10, Billy accidentally spills his soup at lunch, onto the freshly cleaned mess hall floor. Claggart is walking by after this happens and says “Handsomely done, my lad! And handsome is as handsome did it, too!” (pg 322). Because Billy is sitting and cannot see Claggart’s expression, it seems to Billy that this comment from Claggart is a compliment. But Claggart is actually grimacing as he says this, revealing part of his character and his dislike of Billy. This is the first incident where you actually know that Claggart does not like Billy. It shows us that his motivations are bad, and everything “nice” he says to Billy is really mean intended to be evil.