Sexual Attraction By Melville Is Not As Strong With...

Although the sexual attraction described by Melville is not as strong with Captain Fairfax Vere, the attraction is still heavily within the text. Melville uses much of the same innuendo with Vere as he does with Claggart in terms of their attraction to Billy Budd. He is described as having a â€Å"dreaminess of mood† (Melville 25). Yet again there is a descriptive phrase Melville uses that makes the reader question his sexuality. Melville writes, â€Å"But between you and me, don’t you think there is a queer streak of the pedantic running through him† (28)? Although Melville may not have intended the word â€Å"queer† to have a double connotation, but with today’s reading the word ‘queer’ is an umbrella term for homosexuality. But even without the double meaning, it makes the reader pay attention to Vere and since he is an over scrupulous man, the word makes his actions to maintain order, fit him. Since Vere is out of the ordinary in so me way, the reader will thus be more attentive to his behavior, just as they are with Claggart. Vere’s feelings towards Billy begin to become apparent after Claggart turns Billy in. Billy had, â€Å"naturally enough attracted the captain’s attention from the first† (Melville 63). Melville goes on to write that Vere saw Billy as, â€Å"a fine specimen of the genus homo, who in the nude might have posed for a statue of young Adam before the fall (63). Captain Vere thinks very highly of Billy, and has also imagined him nude. The handsome sailor invokes these feelings