SOURCE: “Vere's Use of the ‘Forms’: Means and Ends in Billy Budd,” in American Literature, Vol. 47, No. 1, March, 1975, pp. 37–51.

In the following essay, Sten evaluates the implications of Vere's decision to execute Billy in Billy Budd.

I

Since the 1962 appearance of the Hayford-Sealts edition of Billy Budd, Sailor, there has been no break in the critical inquest, initiated by Joseph Schiffman's ironist reading in 1950, into Melville's view of Vere's decision to execute Billy.¹ Edward H. Rosenberry and Paul Brodtkorb, Jr., each attempted to settle the dispute in the mid-1960's, but the more recent conflicting assessments by Bernard Rosenthal and B. L. Reid seem to imply that the two traditions in Billy Budd criticism will live as long as Melville's most controversial novel continues to be read.² The very difficulty of resolving the controversy may, however, indicate that Melville intended neither to endorse nor to condemn Vere's judgment...