Billy Budd and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

I was having difficulties making connections between these two works.  While they both take place on the seas, and are about sailors, they seem very different.  Billy Budd seems much more realistic than The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.  There does, however, seem to be a somewhat mythical or Jesus feel that surrounds Billy.  When Billy walks around he carries this positive energy that seems to make all the men get along better, be more productive, and be happier.  On the other hand, the Ancient Mariner is doomed to walk around telling people his very heavy, depressing story.  Now that I think about it, maybe that’s one of the key differences between Billy and the Mariner.  Billy has no real knowledge of himself.  “Of self-consciousness he seemed to have little or none, or about as much as we may reasonably impute to a dog of Saint Bernard’s breed” (chapter 2).  As unaware as Billy is of himself, the Mariner seems to be almost hyperaware of himself and his surroundings throughout the poem.  Also, after hearing the Mariner’s story, the Wedding-Guest wakes the next morning “a sadder and a wiser man.”  I’m not sure if there’s any meaning to this, but it seems that in these texts when one brings self-awareness, he brings negativity.

One other possible similarity is the idea that God has created everything even if it is flawed or evil.  For instance, it was when the Mariner saw the beauty of the water-snakes and “blessed them unaware” that he was able to pray and that the Albatross fell off of him.  Billy seems in most ways perfect except for when he feels strong emotion he exhibits “more or less of a stutter or even worse” (chapter 2).  This stutter interferes with Billy’s perfection but seems like each human is subject to some flaw.

 

Billy Budd and the Rime of the Ancient Mariner

In Melville’s novella and in CoIeridge’s poem, I feel like Billy Bud and the Albatross are very similar. In Billy Budd, the crew of both the Indomitable and the Rights-of-Man, really admire and respect Billy. The Ancient Mariner’s crew feels the same way for the albatross. Both entities are viewed as religious symbols. The albatross brings good fortune to the Mariner, his crew and ship and Billy Budd does the same. In chapter 1, Captain Graveling calls him a “Peacekeeper,” as he was able to make Red Whiskers care for him.  Also, Captain Vere calls him “an angel of God,” in chapter 20.

When the albatross is killed, everything begins to go downhill from there. It was an innocent bird that was killed in vain. The same could be said for Billy Budd. He is very innocent and always strives to do the right thing. In his frustration of being accused mutiny, he accidently kills Claggart, and is condemned to death as Vere says that, “[Billy] the angel must hang!”

The Marnier eventually sees that he’s made a grave mistake by killing the bird. He realizes that he must deal with this burden, as he states, “Instead of the cross, the Albatross/About my neck was hung.” The Mariner deals with his mistake by telling his story to those who need to hear it. Captain Vere, the person who had condemned Billy seems to be able to receive any kind of redemption. Billy’s last words to him seemed to haunt Vere as his own last words were Billy’s name.

 

 

 

Billy Budd and the Ancient Mariner

Billy Budd and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are two stories that both took place on sea. The two authors, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Herman Melville, were from different time and background. However, both Billy Budd and The Ancient Mariner connected with some “superpower”. Both Billy Budd and the albatross were innocent in the story, but Billy Budd was finally killed by the Captain Vere (or the law?); the bird was killed by the marine. However, Billy Budd more focuses on how power could change a person’s fate. Billy Budd did not understand why he was accused for what he did not do. But compared with the false true, his words were so weak. He was very helpless and killed Claggart. Even though Vere knew that Billy Budd was innocent, but nobody could save him. This story took place in eighteenth century and it had been based on a real event. On the contrary, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner looks like a fairy tale. I think this is the biggest difference between Billy Budd and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The first thing I noticed while Billy Budd in comparison to The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner is the frankly the idea of the poem vs. the novella. Because I was in the hunt for similarities I couldn’t help but to think how if these two were about the same thing, which they are not, were being treated. In one hand the poem, treated in the way Coleridge does feels like a  condensed feeling, a strong emotional tale packed like a punch while Billy Budd instead perhaps offers us a bit more space for us to think, it makes us dance and it takes us where it wants to finally tell us something. “Who’s the Albatross?”, I asked myself, “every story should have one”, but frankly it is still, at five chapters, too early for me to tell.

Billy Budd is the story of a mariner with the perfect looks and even attitude, but one “fatal flaw”, his voice is hesitant when it needs to be handled. This is evidently a similarity with The Birthmark by Hawthorne. In The Birthmark, we observed how the look for perfection killed someone brought final misery to the end of a quest: the quest to the take the mark away from Georgiana’s face. We see the contrast between the idea of perfection and the reality of the human being superimposed within a marriage. In the Melville novella is is possible that our Georgiana will be Billy Budd and our Aylmer will be the world outside of him, who observes him in his charms when quiet, yet when he opens his mouth they can finally see the contrast, the charm, the magic trick is being revealed and has no effect.

It is too early for me to make strong assumptions with the novella, but I wonder if Billy Budd’s voice will be the flaw that sinks his boat, and dooms him to the depths of the sea, after all nothing is perfect and we end up succumbing to the nature of our being. It occurs to me that perhaps the Albatross in the Melville story opens its wings in the lungs of Billy Budd, flying pass the vocal chords, through the larynx and gliding through the mouth to come and die at the ears of the “Mariners.” I wonder if in this story The Albatross and The Mariner are one. I could be wrong, we’ll see, I have  some chapters to go.

Andres

Comparison between the Mariner and Billy Budd

Upon reading Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and Herman Melville’s story “Billy Budd” I couldn’t help but notice several similarities. The first apparent similarity was the setting of these two writings which is in ships on sea. Also, there are 2 sailors that plays an important role in the stories. In both writings, there is a story being told from the past in the present.

There is also a Christian based theme in each story. In Coleridge’s poem he says “God save thee, ancient Mariner! From the fiends, that plague thee thus” and in Billy Budd there are many instances when the author mentions priests as a metaphor when referring to Billy for example “But Billy came; and it was like a Catholic priest striking peace in an Irish shindy.” The final similarity I came across was the death of Albatross and that of Billy Budd. The ancient Mariner shot Albatross because he along with some of the sailors found it to be suspicious. Although he was said to curse the other sailors, he was later praised for his action. In Billy Budd, Billy was falsely accused by Claggart, so he took it upon himself to kill Claggart. When Billy went to trial, he was found guilty and hanged to death.

 

 

~*Vernelle S. Cetoute*~

Rime Of Ancient Mariner And Billy Budd

Herman Melville’s “Billy Budd” is about a young and handsome sailor that goes by the name of Billy Budd, who seems to encounter difficult obstacles. Just like the Rime of Ancient Mariner, the setting takes place on a ship on sea. Both stories are told in past tense and seem to have a few similarities. One similarity I noticed was that the bird or Albatross, represented good luck to the sailors and then the mariner shot it with a crossbow. The irate sailors had mixed feelings about the mariner. (at least that is what it seem to me) In “Billy Budd”, Billy Budd was a young and and very good-looking man. However, due to jealousy Billy is betrayed by his so called “friends”. Just like the mariner, Billy is a good-hearted, nice man; however, the other sailors don’t seem to think the same thing. Billy Budd has a flaw, which is his speech defect; this causes Billy’s weak defense. In the Rimes Of Ancient Mariner, all the sailors mouths become dry due to the fact that they are so thirsty. This somehow relates because in both novels they are unable to speak at certain points, even though it is clearly for very different reasons. This is what I got so far out of the two stories.

-Brittany Ramos

The connection between “Billy Bud” and “The Birthmark”

When I read “Billy Bud” it was easier to connect to Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark” than “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner”. The connection between the two stories was that that was an imperfection behind what seemed almost perfect. In “Billy Bud” Billy Bud was a handsome man who seemed to be a descendent of the royal family. Even though he had a perfect appearance that people would envy, he had flaws. Billy Bud was illiterate and often stutter when he talked. In the “The Birthmark” Georgiana, the wife of the scientist was a beautiful woman but she was born with a birthmark on her left cheek.

The other connection I found between the two stories were the willingness to sacrifice. In “The Birthmark” Georgiana was willing to remove the birthmark to satisfy her husband even if it’ll cost her life. ‘”Danger? There is but one danger–that this horrible stigma shall be left upon my cheek!” cried Georgiana. “Remove it, whatever be the cost, or we shall both go mad!”‘(1031). Georgiana knew there was a risk in removing the birthmark but her husband wished for it to be removed. Georgiana had no choice but to risk her life for the satisfaction of her husband. On the other hand, Nelson, who was a soldier in the story “Billy Bud” was willing to sacrifice himself to save his crew members. “At Trafalgar, Nelson, on the brink of opening the fight, sat down and wrote his last brief will and testament. If under the presentiment of the most magnificent of all victorious to be crowned by his own glorious death,…if thus to have adorned himself for the altar and the sacrifice were indeed vainglory, then affectation and fustian is each more heroic line in the great epics…”. Nelson felt that his life would be worth the sacrifice if it could save the ship and his crew members. He felt that it was a heroic thing to do.

Even though the two stories were written by two different authors they had same messages. One of it was, no one is perfect, mother nature created everyone to be equal, there are imperfection behind what seemed to be perfect. The other message was, people should not be selfish, people should help other even if it meant to sacrifice oneself.

Billy Budd and The Ancient Mariner

The story Billy Budd and the poem The Ancient Mariner are written by two different authors but after reading Billy Budd, I begin to see some similarities between Billy Budd and The Ancient Mariner, and I also show some differences too. To be honest when I was reading The Ancient Mariner, I had a hard time understanding it but after we talked about it in class, I kind of a general idea what The Ancient Mariner was about. Thus, while I was reading the first five chapters of Billy Budd, I kept in mind what The Ancient Mariner was about and kept comparing and contacting certain things.
For starters both Billy Budd and The Ancient Mariner settings take place at the ocean, where both Billy Budd and The Ancient Mariner main characters is a sailor. Also both the main characters from Billy Budd and The Ancient Mariner had a certain event happen in their life that shaped them to be who they are. Also both the main characters from Billy Budd and The Ancient Mariner have this connection with something far more superior and unnatural, as in it was been talked about but never seen.
Like for example from what I Read in the first five chapters of Billy Budd, it says describes how Bill is kind of like Jesus based on way he looks and what happened in this life when he has a baby. It was said that he didn’t like to talk about his dad, which compares to Jesus how he didn’t like to talk about this dad either. Another comparison I show is Billy is described as a good natured and good well person, just like god. This connection between Billy and Jesus contacts with The Ancient Mariner main character the Mariner and evil. In The Ancient Mariner, the Mariner connects themselves to evil and was put a cruse upon, which lead the Mariner to do evil things like example it lead him to murder.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner & Billy Budd

I noticed a few similarities between the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the story “Billy Budd” by Herman Melville.  The first obvious connection that both pieces of writing share is that settings in both works are naval in nature.  The setting places the character in the The Rime at sea when he is telling the Wedding-Guest the story, and the setting in Melville’s story also sets the main characters out at sea.  At first glance, the settings may seem superficial, but I think it may hold some important meaning that adds to the message in both works.  To me, the sea in both stories sort of symbolizes the world.  In the world, one travels and sees different things and has different experiences.  In the same sense, the Mariner in The Rime has different experiences while he is out at sea that played a strong role in sculpting him into the bright-eyed figure that he became while telling his tale.  In Billy Budd, the sea also adds to the view of the ocean as a symbol for the world.  We see the ocean through the eyes of sailors that pride themselves with all things vainglorious and mudane.  These are qualities that Christians attribute to the world.  I suppose this could be seen as another connection between the theme in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and the theme that evolves in Billy Budd as seen through the setting.  Another connection between both works is the Albatross in The Rime and the character Billy Baby in Billy Budd.  In The Rime, the Albatross come across to us as a figure typifying Christ and thus could be considered as an embodied of all the positive Christian qualities.  This would place the Albatross in the category of a Christian soul.  Similarly, Billy Baby also embodied all the positive qualities that the sailors valued and thus in a sense made him a Christ-like figure like the Albatross.  The key difference between the two is that Billy Baby cannot truly be considered a Christian soul or a holy figure like the Albatross since the qualities that Billy possessed would be considered vain and completely the opposite of what the Church considers truly Christ-like.  The character Captain Edward Vere from “Billy Budd” shares similar qualities to the ancient Mariner in The Rime.  In Billy Budd, after Billy Budd is executed, Billy says, to the captain, “God bless Captain Vere.”  This has a strong effect on Captain Vere  who is in a sense cursed by Billy’s last words just as the Mariner was curse by killing the Albatross.

– Ariel Borrero

Billy Budd & The Ancient Mariner comparison.

One of the first similarities I spotted between The Ancient Mariner and Billy Budd is the main idea of the story- the story of the sailing life. Another similarity I spotted is the way the stories are brought forth, as in the writing style. They are both stories in the past being told in the present. In The Ancient Mariner, the mariner runs into three men and tells them his story of how the life of sailing was, the complications they had endured and such. As the mariner tells his story, the poem shifts from present to past and back again. In Billy budd, the story is more personal and in depth The story talks about a sailor in the year 1797 whom is name Billy Budd. Billy Budd is described as a man that was handsome and charming. As Billy Budd’s career as a sailor is told, it goes even deeper to when he was born and how he was raised as an orphan. Instead of Billy Budd telling his story like the mariner did with his, a narrator is telling it. In chapter three the book takes a turn, shifting the story to an historical event that was taking place in the navy.
-Jacqueline