Essays on Billy Budd

Narrators of questionable credibility are common in American literature, forcing readers to think for themselves and make decisions about what to believe. Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and Herman Melville’s Billy Budd: Sailor contain multiple examples of how the unreliable narrator can be...

To read Herman Melville’s Billy Budd is to experience feelings of intense agony and helpless injustice. Billy Budd, a “Handsome Sailor,” adored by his shipmates for his intrinsic goodness, is condemned to death by a seemingly formalistic and unfeeling legal system (279). Falsely accused of...

What’s in a Name: Melville’s Odd Wording in Billy Budd” The odd, one might say “queer,” language of the novella Billy Budd makes it difficult to not read Melville’s words in a sexualized way. In the beginning of chapter 11, the author uses wording that...

Priorities are always difficult to manage. This theme is especially apparent in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. In this movie, the main character, Billy Buddy wants to save the world from itself, to enact social change, but Penny, the love of his life, is constantly a...