“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was…desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. ... Its most authoritative embodiment was institutional conscience, or manmade laws to uphold order and justice. In the novella Billy Budd, Herman Melville presented a dilemma of private conscience and institutional conscience through the events onboard a British warship during the late eighteenth century. In the civilized society created by men, institutional conscience prevails over private conscience.
Billy Budd became the spoil-of-war in the conflict between institutional conscience and private conscience because of his alienation from civilization. ... 13-14) When Billy The Barbarian confronted the child of civilization—institutional conscience, it killed him, leaving no ground for the private conscience to defend him. ... Similarity, a pure creature such as Billy must perish when he encountered civilization and its institutional conscience.
A highly civilized man, Captain Vere was the victim of the conflict between institutional conscience and private conscience as he helped one triumph over the other while sacrificing his moral codes.
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