Herman Melville wrote the novelette, Billy Budd, in the last three years of his life. In Billy Budd, Melville uses many biblical allusions to relate to the theme of good versus evil.

One of the first allusions of Billy Budd is that of Saul and David. Saul relates to Claggart as David relates to Billy. In the Bible Saul is the first king of Israel and David is basically one of his servants. However, Saul is jealous of David for his success in everything he does. This allusion relates to the story in terms of how jealous Claggart is of Billy even though Claggart is in higher rank than Billy. Claggart is so jealous he even makes false accusations about Billy being part of a mutiny (41).

Another allusion is that of Jacob, Joseph, and Jacob's sons and Joseph's brothers. Joseph in part relates...