How would you feel if you were told you cheated on a test, that you really did not, by a teacher who hated you, and will be expelled because of it? Herman Melville’s Billy Budd relates an allegory of the righteous versus the reprobate by symbolizing Billy Budd, John Claggart, and Captain Vere as Jesus Christ, Lucifer, and God. The protagonist in the novel is Billy Budd. The experiences that Billy undergoes throughout the novel parallel what Jesus Christ endured in his life. Melville characterizes Billy Budd as an innocent man physically and ....