Student Question
In Billy Budd, how do characters' inner qualities relate to their physical appearance?
Quick answer:
Billy Budd's amazing physical appearance connects to his lack of inner qualities in that Billy's beauty leaves no room for a developed personality. Though John Claggart seems rather handsome too, his strange chin suggests something odious is happening inside of him.
Billy Budd happens to be my favorite Herman Melville story. As your question already suggests, what the characters look like on the outside link to how they are (or not are) on the inside.
Let's start with Billy himself. Billy is quite attractive. Melville calls him "The Handsome Sailor" and compares him to a "rustic beauty." He also links Billy's good looks to another gender—that of women. Melville calls Billy "feminine in purity" and suggests that Billy could win a beauty competition among "highborn dames"
Billy's exquisite outside contrasts with his rather absent inside. We find that Billy can't read. He also isn't too self-conscious. Melville compares his level of awareness to that of a "dog of Saint Bernard's breed."
We might say that Billy's beauty leaves no room for a developed interior. Billy is more of an object to be admired and worshiped. Both Ratcliff and Graveling seem quite...
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taken with him.
Do we get sensuous, extending descriptions of Ratcliff or Graveling? We didn't notice any. What does that tell us? Are they not worthy of objectification? There is, however, a glimpse of an inner life. We do know that Garveling has feelings since he is sad to lose Billy to another ship.
Another character who’s allotted lots of physical description is John Claggart. Though not quite the beauty that Billy is, Claggart is rather handsome. Melivile tells us he’s "of no ill figure upon the whole." Claggart and Billy even seem to share a kind of innocence. Melville describes Claggart's hands as "too small and shapely to have been accustomed to hard toil."
One thing that sets Claggart apart from Billy is his chin. Melville spends a fair amount of time on Claggart's chin, which he describes as possessing "a strange protuberant heaviness."
The chin gives us a hint of what's going on inside of Claggart. He's unusual. A queer theory reading of Claggart might uncover Claggart's attraction for Billy. Perhaps that's why he schemes against him.
Another reason might be feelings of jealousy. Though Claggart seems to be attractive, he is not as attractive as Billy. That fact fills him with envy. Again, we might relate Claggart's unseemly feelings to his unseemly chin.
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