How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[Billy's former captain:] "And, lord bless you, the lubber was astonished at the celerity. And will you believe it, Lieutenant, the Red Whiskers now really loves Bill – loves him, or is the biggest hypocrite that ever I heard of. But they all love him." (1.10)
According to Billy's old Sea Captain, Budd is a peacemaking force on board a ship. Other men's admiration for him seems to make them more content in their own duty, and hence more loyal to the English King. What is the difference between love and loyalty? What about the difference between respect and love? Loyalty and respect?
Quote #2
Of self-consciousness he seemed to have little or none, or about as much as we may reasonably impute to a dog of Saint Bernard's breed. (2.11)
If Billy is really as simple as the narrator makes him out to be, then how can he even be called loyal? Doesn't one need to make a conscious decision to be loyal to a man or a cause? Is it possible for a man to practice loyalty in the same way that a dog does?
Quote #3
At the height of Napoleon's unexampled conquests, there were Americans who had fought at Bunker Hill who looked forward to the possibility that the Atlantic might prove no barrier against the ultimate schemes of this French portentous upstart from the revolutionary chaos who seemed in act of fulfilling judgment prefigured in the Apocalypse. (8.3)
How does the meaning of loyalty change in a climate like that of 1797, a climate rife with revolutionary thoughts and uprising? What is the difference between being loyalty to a cause and being loyal to a government? Does Billy seem loyal to either?
Quote #4
The verdict of the sea quidnuncs has been cited only by way of showing what sort of moral impression the man made upon rude uncultivated natures whose conceptions of human wickedness were necessarily of the narrowest, limited to ideas of vulgar rascality – a thief among the swinging hammocks during a night watch, or the man-brokers and land-sharks of the seaports. (8.5)
The narrator, as he is elaborating on Claggart's evil nature, notes that he still inspired a level of begrudged devotion in men. Why is devotion and loyalty so often begrudged (e.g. why do people so often hate their bosses?)? Does true loyalty have room for ill feelings to the object of loyalty?
Quote #5
Now Billy, like sundry other essentially good-natured ones, had some of the weaknesses inseparable from essential good nature; and among these was a reluctance, almost an incapacity of plumply saying no to an abrupt proposition not obviously absurd on the face of it, nor obviously unfriendly, nor iniquitous. (14.4)
Could you call Billy's difficulty in saying no to the people around him a sign of loyalty? Put this quote in the context of other quotations that depict Billy's behavior as dog-like. Is loyalty a simple idea or a complex one? Is it harder to be loyal the more self-conscious you are? If so, does the difficulty mean that your loyalty is that much more valuable?
Quote #6
In sum, Captain Vere had from the beginning deemed Billy Budd to be what in the naval parlance of the time was called a "King's bargain": that is to say, for his Britannic Majesty's navy a capital investment at small outlay or none at all. (18.17)
In the military, loyalty is of high value. But what does it mean for the men to think of one another in terms of "investment"? Do such terms dehumanize people's views of each other? Is part of the reason that Vere can condemn Billy Budd because he thinks of him precisely in such terms?
Quote #7
[Captain Vere:] "As to Budd, cite me an act or spoken word of his confirmatory of what you in general charge against him. Stay," drawing nearer to him; "heed what you speak. Just now, and in a case like this, there is a yardarm-end for the false witness." (18.18)
Given the danger of being a false witness, doesn't it seem that very few would step forward to announce a rising mutiny? Does accusing another man of treason even constitute a normal action aboard an English battleship? What motivations could Claggart have for accusing someone, even if they were guilty of treason?
Quote #8
[Captain Vere:] "I believe you, my man," said the witness, his voice indicating a suppressed emotion not otherwise betrayed. (21.13)
Does the fact that Vere assures Billy that he believes him mean that Vere is showing loyalty to Billy? Or is Vere's assurance empty since he does not act on that belief? What is the relationship between loyalty and belief?
Quote #9
If possible, not to let the men so much as surmise that their officers anticipate aught amiss from them is the tacit rule in a military ship. And the more that some sort of trouble should really be apprehended, the more do the officers keep that apprehension to themselves, though not the less ostentatious vigilance may be augmented. (23.6)
Pretend, for a second, that you are an underling on a military ship. When you show loyalty to your commanding officers, do you think that part of the assumption is that they will take care of trouble for you? Or is part of the assumption that they will be completely open and honest with you? Is Vere returning the men's loyalty by keeping news of trouble from them or is he breaking their trust?
Quote #10
"His function was a responsible one, at once onerous and thankless; and his fidelity in it the greater because of his strong patriotic impulse. In this instance as in so many other instances in these days, the character of this unfortunate man signally refutes, if refutation were needed, that peevish saying attributed to the late Dr. Johnson, that patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." (29.4)
Would Claggart approve of this newspaper description of him? Was he, in any way, really motivated by a strong patriotic impulse?