Billy Budd, Sailor

While discussing Claggart’s personality, the narrator examines the nature of passions. He writes that an intense passion can result from minor events that are disproportionate to their result. For instance, Claggart’s initial dislike for Billy intensifies into hatred after Claggart irrationally decides that Billy spilled his soup on purpose to distress him. Claggart is not overly social, but he does have one friend, a sailor named Squeak, who dislikes Billy. Squeak encourages Claggart, falsely telling him that Billy mocks him in private. Claggart embraces the lie, and his hatred grows.

Billy dozes on deck when a figure wakes him. An anonymous sailor asks Billy to meet him on a higher deck. When they meet, Billy sees that the man is the ship’s afterguardsman, another sailor who was forced into service. The man vaguely asks if Billy might be interested in joining a potential mutiny, should one occur. Billy doesn’t understand the question. When the man offers Billy two coins as clarification, Billy threatens to throw the man into the ocean if he doesn’t leave him alone. Frightened, the man obeys. Billy stutters while he orders him away, which alerts the forecastleman to his distress. Billy tells the man that he sent a trespasser back to his station.