Individual vs. Society Theme Analysis

The story's questions of duty and justice often center around a conflict between an individual and society. In deciding Billy's fate, for example, Captain Vere must decide between his own personal admiration of Billy's character and what may be best for the ship's community and the navy as a whole, as enshrined in naval law. And the entire story is set in the context of the royal navy, where sailors have all devoted their individual lives to serving the interests of their country. Throughout Billy Budd, Melville explores how individuals are often subsumed by the larger interests of society. Many of the sailors aboard the Indomitable are conscripted—that is, taken into service by force. This curtailment of individual rights is encapsulated symbolically when Billy is forced to leave his merchant ship, the Rights-of-Man, in order to join the Indomitable (in some editions, called the Bellipotent). The indomitable power of society—or, in the case of the Bellipotent (which literally means powerful in war), of war—is able to trump the rights of individual people. Captain Vere's main concern is in putting down any hint of mutiny, which means silencing individual, dissenting voices, in favor of obedience to the captain and the navy.

Billy Budd himself must also choose between his own personal honor and the well-being of the Indomitable, when he is conflicted over whether to alert the captain to a possible mutiny. Doing so would be good for the community of the ship, but would compromise Billy's individual honor, making him a tattletale. Billy ends up choosing his own individuality in this case, as he remains silent, but by contrast Captain Vere sides with society, adhering strictly to the law and not letting his own conscience guide him in ordering for Billy's execution. Billy's death makes the loss of individuality considered by Melville more than a merely abstract notion: as an individual, Billy literally loses his life because the interests of society (his ship, the navy, and ultimately Great Britain) are deemed more important. Because of the tragic sympathy with which Billy's death is portrayed, Melville's story can be seen as lamenting this prioritizing of society and as criticizing the social structures that curb individuality. However, the Indomitable is a successful ship; it is also possible to read the story as showing the tragic, but necessary, sacrifice of individuals for larger purposes.