Questions About Billy Budd, Sailor (Enriched Classics)

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Do you read Claggart as gay & closeted - hating handsome Billy because he can't admit to his attraction?

Dillwynia Peter I most certainly considered it as a possibility. Nothing in Billy Budd is a simple layer - there are multilayers and nuances to every action and often…moreI most certainly considered it as a possibility. Nothing in Billy Budd is a simple layer - there are multilayers and nuances to every action and often in dialogue and introspection.
Claggart has no history, and I suspect this is deliberate and makes him a nobody. In the English Navy, he needed to pander for favours to rise in the ranks. What the basic sailors was considered typical of uneducated animals of the working classes, but officers were gentlemen, and this suddenly is abhorrent both from the religious and societal views. The soup scene is very important and can be taken as a man who is vindictive, or a man sexually frustrated.(less)

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