Free Billy Budd Essays: A Structuralist Reading :: Billy Budd Essays

A Structuralist Reading of Billy Budd   . . . truth is revealed only when lump crop is destroyed.  - Dryden, p. 209   Not on your life, says Edgar A. Dryden (though not in so many words, of course) to the above in his splendid Melvilles Thematics of Form. His business line is essentially to show that while more or less readers (erroneously) latch on that Captain Vere is the storys tragic hero, the fact of the matter is that a better reading will reveal him as Melvilles target, if you take to know the truth.    I want to try at the outset is that EVERYTHING DRYDEN SAYS IS SUPPORTED BY THE TEXT he is analyzing. In other words, he cannot be accused of reading-into Well, how does Dryden denormalize (as it were) the reading above? or else obviously even if rather spectacularly. Heres as brief a version of Drydens argument as I can possibly give you Captain Veres argument is really gradally ordered and highly bilateral. Furthermore, it is in keeping with t his compassionate and wise mans philosophy according to which (as Melvilles text tells us) with mankind forms, . . . measured forms are everything (84). interestingly enough, Dryden points out, the create report concerning the whole Budd issue at the end of the story, which is taken from a naval chronicle of the time, and which thus represents an authorized version of the whole affair (85), is to a fault formally ordered and highly symmetrical. The trouble is that this authorized account is totally false. According to this version Billy Budd was evil while John Claggart was good, and so forth Perhaps, Dryden argues, we whitethorn find something in Melvilles text that would confirm a suspicion we may already be entertaining - namely, that formally ordered and highly symmetrical arguments may themselves be suspicious. Dryden finds the text in question very close to the one where Captain Vere makes his claim about measured forms. It reads as follows The symmetry of form get-at-able in pure fiction cannot so readily be achieved in a narration essentially having less to do with fable than with fact. legality uncompromisingly TOLD WILL ALWAYS HAVE ITS RAGGED EDGES (84 capitals mine).   In contradistinction to Captain Veres argument or the naval chronicles authorized version, then, Dryden asks us to examine Melvilles own course of corpulent his story. Is it formally ordered and highly symmetrical?Free Billy Budd Essays A Structuralist Reading Billy Budd EssaysA Structuralist Reading of Billy Budd   . . . truth is revealed only when formal order is destroyed.  - Dryden, p. 209   Not on your life, says Edgar A. Dryden (though not in so many words, of course) to the above in his splendid Melvilles Thematics of Form. His argument is essentially to show that while most readers (erroneously) assume that Captain Vere is the storys tragic hero, the fact of the matter is that a better reading will reveal him as Melvilles target, if you want to know the truth.    I want to emphasize at the outset is that EVERYTHING DRYDEN SAYS IS SUPPORTED BY THE TEXT he is analyzing. In other words, he cannot be accused of reading-into Well, how does Dryden denormalize (as it were) the reading above? Rather simply even if rather spectacularly. Heres as brief a version of Drydens argument as I can possibly give you Captain Veres argument is very formally ordered and highly symmetrical. Furthermore, it is in keeping with this compassionate and wise mans philosophy according to which (as Melvilles text tells us) with mankind forms, . . . measured forms are everything (84). Interestingly enough, Dryden points out, the published report concerning the whole Budd affair at the end of the story, which is taken from a naval chronicle of the time, and which thus represents an authorized version of the whole affair (85), is also formally ordered and highly symmetrical. The trouble is that this authorized account is totally false. According to t his version Billy Budd was evil while John Claggart was good, etc. Perhaps, Dryden argues, we may find something in Melvilles text that would confirm a suspicion we may already be entertaining - namely, that formally ordered and highly symmetrical arguments may themselves be suspicious. Dryden finds the text in question very close to the one where Captain Vere makes his claim about measured forms. It reads as follows The symmetry of form attainable in pure fiction cannot so readily be achieved in a narration essentially having less to do with fable than with fact. TRUTH UNCOMPROMISINGLY TOLD WILL ALWAYS HAVE ITS RAGGED EDGES (84 capitals mine).   In contradistinction to Captain Veres argument or the naval chronicles authorized version, then, Dryden asks us to examine Melvilles own way of telling his story. Is it formally ordered and highly symmetrical?