Billy Budd Essay: Moral Shades of Grey -- Billy Budd Essays

Moral dark glasses of Grey in Billy Budd Veres closing, according to the Wartime Acts under which he was subject, was legitimately justified. To do anything else would be a direct violation of the law, and thus, the position in which he was placed. The captain could not follow any twinge of moral sense that he felt, for it was not his position to do so. As Vere put it, just do these unlesstons that we wear attest that our allegiance is to Nature? No, to the King. He and the adjudicate were forced to follow their duty, which was to carry issue the law. As officers of such a law, the morality of the decision was not their picking, as that same law located what they were to choose. The decision fell finally to Vere as he gave the speech which condemned Billy. Our vowed duty is in this That however pitiless that law may operate, we nevertheless nonplus to it and administer it. This was, however, not the only factor to be looked after. What options they had does not grade the morality of an act, it is only one part of a larger whole. jurisprudence is, in itself, morality, by nature of the fact that to defy law results in chaos. Originally the law was created to serve as a means of carrying out Justice, but the sheer nature of the fact that it has since, as in this case, acted in some way other than to uphold such a excogitation proves that it is a separate entity unto itself. Rather than considering the morality of a decision in the administering of Justice, it is now reasonable and required to consider the law as a factor in determining the morality of a decision. When the virtue of the decision is determined, then can Justice, and thus punishment, be considered. It is important to understand this innovation law is no longer a means of carry... ... choice, his decision is justified. excuse is as close to virtue as can be evaluate in this case. Life is not black and white, as theories of morality would dictate, but merely a complex set of shades o f grey. Veres final choice was only the highlights on a painting, the end of a process, and the selection among a set of distasteful colors on a palette of grey. works Cited and Consulted Chase, Richard. Herman Melville A Critical Study. New York Hafner Publishing Company, 1971. Melville, Herman. Billy Budd, Sailor and different Stories. Ed. Frederick Busch. New York Penguin, 1986. Richards, Lawrence O. The Bible Readers Companion. Wheaton SP Publications, Inc., 1991. Stern, Milton R. The Fine Hammered Steel of Herman Melville. Urbana U of Illinois P, 1968. The blessed Bible, New King James Version. Dallas Thomas Nelson, Inc., 1979.