ed through his character just as no good is ever portrayed through Satan. “Claggart is pure evil, not quite explainable except as a flawed element of human nature” (Pink Monkey). Claggart’s evil is beyond that of human nature. Our human nature is to sin, but it also gives us some kind of a choice. Claggart, however, is pure evil. There is no choice because everything he does has some kind of evil motif. He represents a natural evil and the opposition and corruption that we must face everyday. That opposition and corruption comes from Satan himself. In this way, Claggart is the personification of pure evil and that pure evil is portrayed in only one other being. And that being is Satan.The struggle in Billy Budd is very obviously shown through the confrontations between Billy and Claggart. If Billy chose experience, and in turn worldliness and sinfulness, he might have lived, but true goodness exists after death where experience doesn’t matter. Therefore, goodness ultimately triumphs. This means that “we need to have morality and virtue; we need to be in the world, but not of the world” (Simms, “Billy Budd”). This novel makes it clear that evil still reigns on earth and that good and innocence will always have to struggle against it....
