Billy Budd Essay: The Hangman's Duty

The Hangman’s Duty When duty and conscience clash, which should be the victor? This was the question that raced through the mind of Captain Edward Fairfax Vere, as he decided what to do after Billy Budd killed the Master-at-arms, John Claggart. Everyone agrees that Captain Vere sympathized with Billy, but some people believe that being an abject slave of one’s emotions and a miserable prisoner of one’s feelings and the so called mistaken impulse of the heart, should be considered greater than the sacred call of duty and the honour in keeping an oath to uphold the king’s law.
Captain Vere should have sentence foretop man, Billy Budd to death for three reasons. It was the punishment required by law, mutiny was caused by the by such a
Captain Vere could lose his position, or even his life, for failing to take this disciplinary measure. He was England’s Best Naval officer since Captain Nelson, who died gloriously at Trafalgar. If Captain Vere was to be put out of service, England’s victory in the war could be lost, causing the destruction of hundreds of lives, instead of just one. All the sailors aboard the Bellipotent realized this, and understood why Captain Vere had to take the actions he did. Though some weak hearted people may say that the king and the officials on land would have understood Billy’s situation and given him amnesty, if they had been applied to, Billy’s innocence could never have been lawfully proven in any court, and the torturous wait for, in the end, a negative ruling would be a worse and crueler sentence that an immediate death, and a final resting place in the sea, which Billy loved so
If sent to prison, Billy, who had such an impressionable nature, would feel like a criminal all of his life. Guilt and shame would follow him like a veritable shadow. Gone would be the reckless innocence of youth, the boisterous joy of the sea and service. Instead Billy would be locked away, rotting in a moldy dungeon, reeking of waste and spoiled food, with only thieves, assassins, and insurrectionists for companions. When released, Billy would be a battered, embittered, sorrowful old man, shunned and mistrusted by the entire blindly prejudiced world, and dying cold, lonely and forlorn. By having Billy hanged, Captain Vere did his duty and saved Billy from a fate worse than