The H.M.S. Bellipotent and All That It Implies
In the "Setting" section, we explain a bit about the climate of 1797. The story takes place during the Napoleonic Wars in the same year as a number of massive mutinies in the English fleet. Thus a...
Billy Budd, Christ Figure
Whoever this narrator is, he really likes Billy Budd. A lot. One of the ways that you can tell is that he is constantly comparing Billy Budd to religious figures. The comparisons mainly fall into t...
Faith Versus Science
These days, when you hear "faith versus science" the first thing you probably think is: evolution versus creationism. In Billy Budd, though, the tension between faith and science is not so simple o...
The Noble Savage
As we noted above in "Billy Budd, Christ Figure," the narrator's characterization of Billy is jam-packed with the narrator's own ideas about who Billy is and what he stands for. The phrase "Noble S...