The novel, a sea tale set in the age before steamships, opens with the overtones of a legend. Associating the term “Handsome Sailor” first with the African and then with the hero, Melville gives his work a universality which is essential to its meaning. From the beginning, Billy Budd manifests superhuman qualities, many of which suggest a mythic, or Christ-like, figure. Captain Graveling, who values Billy’s good traits, refers to him as his jewel and his peacemaker.
Billy Budd lives during a time when order and human rights are threatened. Acquainted with the procedure of impressment, he does not hesitate when Lieutenant Ratcliffe selects him for service to the king, George III. There is irony and pathos in Billy’s impulsive, sincere gesture in jumping up in the cutter and bidding farewell to “old Rights-of-Man.” The lieutenant gruffly orders him to sit down, demonstrating that Billy is indeed departing from a world of peace and rights and into a world of guns and arbitrary military discipline.
This episode also foreshadows the confrontation in which Billy, a fighting peacemaker,” will strike Claggart. Earlier, aboard the Rights-of-Man, Billy had been bullied by Red Whiskers. One day Billy struck a single stunning blow and astonished the bully with his quickness. Since that day, Red Whiskers, as well as the rest of the crew, has been a friend of Billy, who appealed to others because of his pure virtue and cheerful countenance.
