This battle is symbolic of the battle between Claggart and Billy. The French ship represented Claggart and the Bellipotent representing Billy. While the French ship looses, the Bellipotent sustains a heavy loss as well. This is almost a repeat of the event that occurred within the Bellipotent when Claggart accuses Billy of mutiny. The latter punched the former and Claggart died due to that. Even though Billy “won” in the short term, he was hanged later for that incident. In the battle of the ships, the same happens: the Bellipotent wins, yet Captain Vere dies some time later due to a bullet wound fired during the battle. The victory was a close one, and can also be considered a loss, as they lost a crew member of high standing, which symbolizes Billy’s death.
Describe what you think happened in the compartment as Captain Vere told Billy of the court’s decision. Base your response as accurately as possible on the characterizations of the two so far.
After the court made the decision of the punishment of Billy Budd, Captain Vere announced the results to Billy in the makeshift “jail” compartment. I think that the captain told the direct result to the condemned, as he follows procedures and is a straight-to-the-point type. At that point, I would think that Billy would be slightly shocked at the decision of his death, and the captain would continue, but not in such a formal tone. He would probably use a one-on-one type of conversation to tell Billy why the court came to that decision and I would think that Billy would accept it because he looks up to the captain as making the right choices.
The battle of the ships represents the long drawn out battle between Billy and Claggart. Ship battles usually only end when one ship has been damaged to the extent where it can no longer operate. Claggart was killed (no longer able to continue battle)
I think you're comparison between the ships and the two characters of Billy and Claggart is good. There is definitely a similarity that the author is trying to convey by including the battle between the Athieste and the Bellipotent. There are a lot of similarities and I think you got many of them here except potentially a relation back to the original ship that Billy was one - the Rights-of-man. Althought the names Athieste and Rights-of-Man do not have that much of a connection, they both represent Billy and his innocence. Good response and I like your picture choice. It is a very good choice for what you are talking about!!
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