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Allegory
Definition of Allusion
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals, historical events, or philosophical ideas... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to other literary works, famous individuals... read full definition
In literature, an allusion is an unexplained reference to someone or something outside of the text. Writers commonly allude to... read full definition
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Rights of Man:
In Chapter 1, the narrator makes various allusions when introducing the ship Rights-of-Man:
That was the merchant ship’s name, though by her master and crew abbreviated in sailor fashion into the Rights. The hardheaded Dundee owner was a staunch admirer of Thomas Paine [...] In christening his vessel after the title of Paine’s volume the man of Dundee was something like his contemporary ship-owner, Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, whose sympathies [...] he evinced by naming his ships after Voltaire, Diderot, and so forth.
Explanation and Analysis—Alexander the Great :
In Chapter 1, the narrator compares the sight of Billy Budd astride a horse to Alexander the Great and his horse Bucephalus:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ashore he was the champion; afloat the spokesman; on every suitable occasion always foremost. Close-reefing topsails in a gale, there he was, astride the weather yardarm-end, foot in the Flemish horse as stirrup, both hands tugging at the earing as at a bridle, in very much the attitude of young Alexander curbing the fiery Bucephalus. A superb figure.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Mythical Heroes :
Billy Budd contains multiple allusions to various mythical heroes. Melville often makes these allusions to characterize Billy Budd. In Chapter 1, for example, Lieutenant Ratcliff compares him to the god Apollo:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“But where’s my beauty? Ah,” looking through the cabin’s open door, “here he comes; and, by Jove, lugging along his chest—Apollo with his portmanteau!—My man,” stepping out to him, “you can’t take that big box aboard a warship.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Claggart and Budd:
In the novel, John Claggart is a foil to Billy Budd. He exists largely to contrast Billy's traits, values, and motivations, and vice versa. Note how the narrator describes John Claggart in Chapter 8:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Claggart was a man about five-and-thirty, somewhat spare and tall, yet of no ill figure upon the whole. His hand was too small and shapely to have been accustomed to hard toil. The face was a notable one, the features all except the chin cleanly cut as those on a Greek medallion; yet the chin, beardless as Tecumseh’s, had something of strange protuberant broadness in its make.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Hawthorne:
In Chapter 2, the narrator makes a reference to author Nathaniel Hawthorne when describing Billy Budd's appearance:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Though our Handsome Sailor had as much of masculine beauty as one can expect anywhere to see; nevertheless, like the beautiful woman in one of Hawthorne’s minor tales, there was just one thing amiss in him. No visible blemish indeed, as with the lady; no, but an occasional liability to a vocal defect [...] under sudden provocation of strong heart-feeling in his voice [...] was apt to develop an organic hesitancy, in fact more or less of a stutter or even worse.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8
Explanation and Analysis—Claggart and Budd:
In the novel, John Claggart is a foil to Billy Budd. He exists largely to contrast Billy's traits, values, and motivations, and vice versa. Note how the narrator describes John Claggart in Chapter 8:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Claggart was a man about five-and-thirty, somewhat spare and tall, yet of no ill figure upon the whole. His hand was too small and shapely to have been accustomed to hard toil. The face was a notable one, the features all except the chin cleanly cut as those on a Greek medallion; yet the chin, beardless as Tecumseh’s, had something of strange protuberant broadness in its make.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Camoëns :
In Chapter 8, the narrator uses a simile and makes an allusion to the poet Luiz de Camoëns as he reflects on the various (and sometimes disreputable) ways the navy recruited sailors, specifically in reference to John Claggart:
Unlock with LitCharts A+That era appears measurably clear to us who look back at it, and but read of it. But to the grandfathers of us graybeards, the more thoughtful of them, the genius of it presented an aspect like that of Camoëns’ Spirit of the Cape, an eclipsing menace mysterious and prodigious.
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—Mythical Heroes :
Billy Budd contains multiple allusions to various mythical heroes. Melville often makes these allusions to characterize Billy Budd. In Chapter 1, for example, Lieutenant Ratcliff compares him to the god Apollo:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“But where’s my beauty? Ah,” looking through the cabin’s open door, “here he comes; and, by Jove, lugging along his chest—Apollo with his portmanteau!—My man,” stepping out to him, “you can’t take that big box aboard a warship.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 12 (not in all editions)
Explanation and Analysis—Chang and Eng:
In Chapter 12, the narrator uses an allusion and simile to describe John Claggart's feelings about Billy Budd, specifically regarding Billy's "significant personal beauty":
Unlock with LitCharts A+Now envy and antipathy, passions irreconcilable in reason, nevertheless in fact may spring conjoined like Chang and Eng in one birth.
Related Themes:
Chapter 17
Explanation and Analysis—Mythical Heroes :
Billy Budd contains multiple allusions to various mythical heroes. Melville often makes these allusions to characterize Billy Budd. In Chapter 1, for example, Lieutenant Ratcliff compares him to the god Apollo:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“But where’s my beauty? Ah,” looking through the cabin’s open door, “here he comes; and, by Jove, lugging along his chest—Apollo with his portmanteau!—My man,” stepping out to him, “you can’t take that big box aboard a warship.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 21
Explanation and Analysis—Peter the Barbarian:
In Chapter 21, the narrator makes an allusion to Peter the Great in reference to Captain Vere's actions after hearing Claggart's accusations against Budd:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The maintenance of secrecy in the matter, the confining all knowledge of it for a time to the place where the homicide occurred, the quarter-deck cabin; in these particulars lurked some resemblance to the policy adopted in those tragedies of the palace which have occurred more than once in the capital founded by Peter the Barbarian.
Related Themes:
Chapter 22
Explanation and Analysis—Jesus Christ:
The novella is full of biblical allusions and is considered an allegory, as it conveys a hidden meaning through the use of symbolic characters and events. Billy's story effectively mirrors the story of Jesus Christ's redemption in the Bible. Like Christ, Budd becomes a sacrificial figure, someone who has died for a greater cause or good. Claggart, who causes Billy's death, could be said to represent Satan, while Captain Vere is a representation of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who presided over Jesus's trial and gave the order for his crucifixion.
In Chapter 22, the narrator makes an allusion to Abraham and Isaac:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The austere devotee of military duty, letting himself melt back into what remains primeval in our formalized humanity, may in end have caught Billy to his heart, even as Abraham may have caught young Isaac on the brink of resolutely offering him up in obedience to the exacting behest.
Related Themes:
Chapter 25
Explanation and Analysis—Jesus Christ:
The novella is full of biblical allusions and is considered an allegory, as it conveys a hidden meaning through the use of symbolic characters and events. Billy's story effectively mirrors the story of Jesus Christ's redemption in the Bible. Like Christ, Budd becomes a sacrificial figure, someone who has died for a greater cause or good. Claggart, who causes Billy's death, could be said to represent Satan, while Captain Vere is a representation of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who presided over Jesus's trial and gave the order for his crucifixion.
In Chapter 22, the narrator makes an allusion to Abraham and Isaac:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The austere devotee of military duty, letting himself melt back into what remains primeval in our formalized humanity, may in end have caught Billy to his heart, even as Abraham may have caught young Isaac on the brink of resolutely offering him up in obedience to the exacting behest.
Related Themes:
Chapter 31
Explanation and Analysis—Jesus Christ:
The novella is full of biblical allusions and is considered an allegory, as it conveys a hidden meaning through the use of symbolic characters and events. Billy's story effectively mirrors the story of Jesus Christ's redemption in the Bible. Like Christ, Budd becomes a sacrificial figure, someone who has died for a greater cause or good. Claggart, who causes Billy's death, could be said to represent Satan, while Captain Vere is a representation of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who presided over Jesus's trial and gave the order for his crucifixion.
In Chapter 22, the narrator makes an allusion to Abraham and Isaac:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The austere devotee of military duty, letting himself melt back into what remains primeval in our formalized humanity, may in end have caught Billy to his heart, even as Abraham may have caught young Isaac on the brink of resolutely offering him up in obedience to the exacting behest.
Related Themes:
