Transcendentalism and Billy Budd

Transcendentalism was a artistic movement in American history that occurred in the nineteenth century. Transcendentalists worked to redefine the way they approached their craft, life, and spirituality. Herman Melville is one of the most famous transcendentalist writers, with a very famous novel called Billy Budd. Billy Budd is in many ways a transcendentalist novel, the novel is an allegory that symbolizes Christ's life and death but does not really seem catholic because of a belief in spirits rather than normal Christian beliefs.

Billy Budd has many allegoric characters, Billy Budd who mirrors Christ is the most obvious. Billy, like Jesus, has a very pure heart and actually stutters at the thought of committing a crime. Billy Budd, also like Jesus is looked up to by many because of his strong character and personality. In the end of the novel Billy is worshiped, just like Christ after the crucifixion. Another allegoric character is Captain Vere who can easily be seen as Joseph as in that he is a father figure to Billy, but not his real father, but more over as Pontius Pilate who was in charge of Jesus' crucifixion and had him crucified because he had to do it not because he wanted to.

Billy Budd has multiple allegoric scenes. Claggarts accusation of Billy planning a mutiny mirrors Judas' betrayal of Christ. Like Judas, Claggarts action led to the death of the protagonist, Billy or Jesus. The scene in which Billy is hung obviously depicts Christ' crucifixion. Billy is hung, his body does not twitch like people should when they're hung, and, like Christ, his body ascends. Christ died on the cross and He ascended into heaven on the third day.

Transcendentalists struggled to define their spirituality and religion. Billy Budd is not directly linked to Christ, because Herman Melville was not Christian. The Narrator constantly refers to Billy's spirit but does not relate it to Christianity in that he never goes to heaven or hell.