Comparing Romantic Opposition in Billy Budd, Bartleby the Scrivener and Artist of the Beautiful :: comparison compare contrast essays

Herman Melville wrote some of the near widely read works in the history of literature during the late nineteenth century. He has become a writer with whom the romantic era is associated and a man whose works have become a standard by which modern literature is judged. One of his most well-kn give birth and widely studied short pieces of fiction is a story entitled, simply, truncheon Budd. In this short story, Melville tells the tale of Billy Budd, a somewhat out-of-place stuttering sailor boy who is too innocent for his own good. This enchanting tale, while inevitably entertaining, holds beneath it numerous layers of interpretive depth and among these layers of interpretation, an idea that has been entertained in the literature of many other romantic writers. Melville uses a literary technique of developing two characters that are complete opposites in all aspects and contrasting them throughout the narrative, thus allowing their own personalities to adversely compl iment each other. Melville overly uses this tactical manoeuvre in another well-known short story, Bartleby the Scrivener. Much like Melvilles two stories, another romantic writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses this tactic in his short story, The Artist of the Beautiful when he creates two completely contrary characters who vie for the same womans love. Both writers use the contrary characters to constitute the different facets of the human personality. Using this idea and many others, these romantic writers, Melville and Hawthorne, created works with depth of meaning that were both interesting to read and even more intriguing to interpret. In his short story, Billy Budd, Melville uses this romantically based idea of characteristic opposites in two of his main characters, Billy Budd and Claggart. To give the comparison even more strength, Melville also puts these two characters in virtually opposing roles in the story. Billy represents the good that is present in humans and Claggart represents the bad. Similarly, Claggart takes on an intelligent persona while Billy appears to be a bit innocent and uneducated in the ways of the ship. These two men are essentially at odds and appear to represent the dueling facets of the human conscience, the sort of angel and devil on the shoulder. Claggart wishes to rid the ship of Billy and eventually, the captain of the ship is forced to hang Billy because of Claggarts malice.