Billy Budd, Sailor 7

Study Guide Questions for Ch. 24-30

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)

Death, Peace, Truth, Appearance vs. Reality

Grammar Questions: (The Information of the Text)

1. At the beginning of this reading, how are Billy’s surroundings described?

2. What was the chaplain’s interaction with Billy Budd like?

3. At what time of day was Billy’s sentence carried out?

4. What were Billy’s last words and in what manner were they uttered?

5. How did the crew respond to Billy’s last words?

6. What did Mr. Purser and the ship’s Surgeon discuss as unusual about Billy’s death?

7. What happened at the “second call for all hands” on deck?

8. What did Captain Vere have his men do proceeding the burial of Billy Budd?

9. What happened to Captain Vere shortly after Billy’s execution?

10. How did the newspaper represent the incident onboard the Bellipotent?

11. What became of the “spar” from which Billy was hung?

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

1. Melville wrote, “In fervid hearts self-contained, some brief experiences devour our human tissue as secret fire in a ship’s hold consumes cotton in the bale.” What did he mean by this?

2. Why do you think Billy seems to be so at peace with his circumstances?

3. Why might Captain Vere have summoned “all hands to witness punishment?” What would be the purpose in making sure the whole crew was there to see it?

4. What might be the significance of Billy’s last words and the fact that they were “wholly unobstructed in the utterance?”

5. What connection is Mellville trying to make his readers think about when he wrote, “The hull deliberately recovering from the periodic roll to leeward was just regaining an even keel, when the last signal, a preconcerted dumb one, was given. At the same moment it chanced that the vapory fleece hanging low in the East, was shot thro' with a soft glory as of the fleece of the Lamb of God seen in mystical vision, and simultaneously therewith, watched by the wedged mass of upturned faces, Billy ascended; and, ascending, took the full rose of the dawn?”

6. What was Melville trying to tell his readers by the discussion between Mr. Purser and the Surgeon?

7. Why did Captain Vere deviate from the normal schedule of things “beating to quarters at an hour prior to the customary one?”

8. What might have been Melville’s purpose in discussing the names of the French ships?

9. What is Melville trying to say about Captain Vere’s death and the fact that Billy’s name was on his lips shortly before he passed away?

10. What do you think Melville intended his reader to feel based upon the news report and then the poem in the final two chapters?

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

1. Speaking of the ship’s chaplain, Melville wrote, “Bluntly put, a chaplain is the minister of the Prince of Peace serving in the host of the God of War - Mars.” How ought we to think about the role of Christian ministers serving in (and receiving their pay from) the armed forces? What potential dangers are there for a Chritian minister in that context? What potential goods are there? Ultimately, do you think they should be there? Why or why not? 

2. The biblical doctrine of Christ’s substitutionary atonement teaches us that Christ died in the place of those whom he would save. He died so that we who trust in him wouldn’t have to. Do you think the idea of a “substitutionary atonement” is present in this story? If so, how so and in what way? If not, explain why you don’t think this is a fitting analogy for the story.

Theological Analysis: (Sola Scriptura)

1. The ship’s chaplain “felt that innocence was even a better thing than religion wherewith to go to Judgment.” How should we think of Billy’s situation in light of what is said in Romans 1:18-20 and Romans 3:10-12?

2. How can we relate John 3:14 to our present reading?

3. Read Isaiah 53:12. How might we relate this to the news report about Billy Budd and John Claggart and the Bellipotent in general?