At first, after finishing Billy Budd, I was not sure where I stood in terms of thinking if justice was properly served with Billy Budd’s punishment. Mostly due to fact that I was grappling with what motivated Captain Vere to carry out the trial and conviction of Billy Budd in the manner he did. It became obvious that Vere was somewhat morally conflicted when he began to slightly tear up as Billy was hanged. So, I did not understand why he did not just enact a less severe punishment for Billy. However, after thinking about the topic more, I came to the conclusion that Vere punished Billy for the greater good of his society, the ship, in a pivotal and tense time. If the trial were to be carried out differently, requiring a bigger production,
