Billy Budd, Sailor 1

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 1-2

If you are looking for the beginning of the study for Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville then you can go HERE for a brief introduction. At the bottom of the introduction you will find the links to each section of the study guide as it becomes available. If you would like to see the growing list of book studies available for free on this site you can go HERE. Enjoy!

Virtues/Vices/Great Ideas: (Find them in the Text)

Goodness, Being Chosen, Peace, Innocence, Appearance vs. Reality, Kindness

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. What are some of the key stated qualities of a “Handsome Sailor?”

2. How did Billy react to being chosen by Lieutenant Ratcliffe to serve on the H.M.S. Bellipotent?

3. What was Captain Graveling like?

4. According to the text, why was Captain Graveling so devastated to be losing Billy?

5. According to the text, why had Captain Graveling named his ship “Rights of Man?”

6. What was different about Billy’s situation which made being impressed into naval service more agreeable to him than for those who “were not so young as our foretopman?”

7. To what was “Billy Budd’s position aboard the seventy-four…analogous to?”

8. What was Billy’s origin? From whence did he come?

9. How did Melville describe Billy’s general character?

10. What one “defect” did Melville note that Billy had?

Logic Questions: (Interpreting, Comparing/Contrasting, Reasoning)

1. What is the significance of the discussion concerning the oft repeated term “Handsome Sailor?” Why might this be important to the story?

2. Why might Captain Graveling have not slept at all as long as “his craft was in any proximity to land?”

3. What did Melville mean by saying of Lieutenant Ratcliffe that “he was one of those sea dogs in whom all the hardships and peril of naval life in the great prolonged wars of his time never impaired the natural instinct for sensuous enjoyment?”

4. Why did “the Red Whiskers” come to like Billy after Billy gave him a “terrible drubbing?” 

5. Why did Billy not complain at all about being impressed into naval service?

6. What might be considered ironic about Billy’s waving farewell to the merchant ship upon which he had served?

7. Why might it be significant to the story that Billy does not know his parentage or origin?

8. What did Melville mean by saying, “Billy in many respects was little more than an upright barbarian?”

9. Why did Melville relate Billy’s Character to Caspar Hauser? What connection should be made between the two?

10. How are biblical narratives and figures being used to shape this story?

Rhetoric Questions: (The Analysis of Ideas in the Text)

1. Impressment is similar in some ways (though different in some important ways) to the concept of being drafted into the United States military. Do you think a civil government has the right to force its citizens into military service? Why or why not? If so, under what conditions, and in what way, would you suggest this should be done? If not, how do you propose that a nation should meet pressing demands for national defense? Explain your answer thoroughly.

2. Billy’s origin is obscure. We don’t know from whence he came. What other protagonists from other stories can you think of who come from obscurity? Why might this be such a common and significant motif (or theme) in great literature?

3. Compare and contrast “The Declaration of the Right of Man” adopted by the French parliament during the French Revolution with “The Declaration of Independence.” What are some similarities and differences you notice? Do you think one statement is objectively better than the other? Why or why not?

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. Read Hebrews 7:1-3. What connection could be made between Melchizedek and Billy Budd? Why might this be significant?

2. Read Numbers 1 and 1 Kings 5 and relate these to our present reading. Do these passages affect your answer to the first Rhetoric question? Why or why not?