Herman Melville's Billy Budd and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance - Essay Example

Emerson embodied the monistic phase of symbolism, the sweeping sense of fusion; Melville lived in a universe of paradox and knew the struggle to implement the claims of symbolic imagination (6). Continuing the theme related to the seas, Billy Budd was a story about a sailor who was accused of maneuvering a rebellion during a voyage at sea. The character of Billy Budd in a way depicted the opinion of the world towards America. As Melville described the main character in a narration, “It was strength and beauty.

Tales of his prowess were recited. Ashore he was the champion; afloat the spokesman; on every suitable occasion always foremost” (6). Though Budd was still of a very young age, it was never a hindrance as to what he could accomplish and conquer. The spirit within the main character seemed to be the personality that Americans are perceived to have, filled with enthusiasm and dreams. In a very challenging environment like the H. M. S. Indomitable, a young Billy Budd was able to survive and perform the tasks that were given onto him (Melville, 7).

As a man of courage and knowledge, Billy Budd had been the epitome of what a nation should be according to Melville. In his essay Self-Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson expressed: And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark (EmersonCentral.Com). One can conclude that Melville complemented this idea of Emerson with the creation of the character of Billy Budd himself.

Barely an adult yet the lead character of the novel have gone through so much that others can consider being beyond one’s capabilities. Age is just a number and not the gauge of one’s capabilities. It is always the will and mind that dictate a person regarding his life and future. Despite the allegations being put up against Billy, he faced the people who had condemned him even before he was proven guilty of the alleged mutiny. After the death of Billy Budd, there was a narration towards the opinion of the other people aboard the ship towards the incident and the innocence of the dead sailor: Ignorant tho’ they were of the secret facts of the tragedy, and not thinking but that the penalty was somehow unavoidably inflicted from the naval point of view, for all that they instinctively felt that Billy was a sort of man as incapable of mutiny as of willful murder (Melville, 118).

There were not quite too many complementing ideas from the works of Melville and Emerson and the same can also be said about the contradictions Melville made against the works of Emerson. Once both a transcendentalist, Melville eventually switched points of view and his latter works have a shadow of being an anti-transcendental. Since Emerson is one of the most prominent transcendentalists, his works have been either critiqued or contradicted by the latter works of Melville. The turning point of the latter author’s beliefs was evident in his most prominent work, Moby-Dick.

Though there were still instances where their works seemed to be co-related with each other, it is quite more evident how Melville will be contradicting the ideas and statements written by Emerson