Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors
used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Ships
Broadly speaking, the H.M.S. Bellipotent symbolizes
society, with the actions of a few characters standing for the state
of human society in general. In a sense, the various ships in the
novel represent different types of societies: the Rights-of-Man symbolizes
a place where individuals maintain their individuality, while the Bellipotent represents
a military world in which, under the threat of violence—and therefore
in the presence of evil—the rules of society impinge upon the individual
rights of men. The Athée, whose name means “the
atheist” in French, symbolizes the anti-religious aspects of a powerful,
war-driven society.
The Purser and the Surgeon
The purser and the surgeon who debate Billy’s story after
his death represent faith and skepticism, the two fundamentally
opposed attitudes toward religious mysteries. The purser believes
that Billy’s death indicates some special quality in Billy, possibly
supernatural. The surgeon, on the other hand, maintaining a scientific
viewpoint, refuses to acknowledge Billy’s unusually peaceful death
as more than a quirk of matter. Besides dramatizing two long-standing
attitudes toward religion, these two characters and their conversation are
important because they initiate the narrator’s exploration of Billy’s
posthumous legend. The narrator ultimately calls into question the
novel’s larger Christian allegory as he investigates how people
transform events into legendary narratives.
