Question 1
After going to the forechains, Billy is confused. He is unsure if he did the right thing by telling the man to return to his post. He wrestles with this concept of what had happened, and also why, before asking the Dansker.
I think this tells us that billy is so nieve and inoccent that he cannot even understand why people would want to disobey rules. This meeting is Billy's first real experience with something dark, and (from his point of view) not good-natured. While he notices this, he cannot really grasp it, because he has no evil motivations himself. He is also not sure what to make of the bribe, as he does not think that money should be a factor in if something is right or not.
Question 2
When Billy confides in the Dansker about the indecent, the Dankser states that it could be another example of how Claggart "has it in for him". Billy, who no longer states that he blatantly disbelieves that Claggart has something against him, asks why the Dansker says this, but gets no answer. He does this, I think, because he is confused. Before, when the speaks to the Dansker, he knows what (in his mind at least) is going on, and therefore, contradicts what is told to him. In this instance however, he does not really understand what happend and why, and so, is willing to listen to what the Dansker has to say. He also realizes that what happened was not honest and straight forward, but in trickery and dishonesty.
Question 1
ReplyDeleteThis does tell us that Billy is naive and innocent, so innocent in fact, that he does not understand the concept of disobeying or bending the rules. However, not only does he not have any evil motivations, it appears that he has absolutely no idea of what an evil intension/motivation is, and of course he would not be able to figure out if money is a factor in this or not.
Question 2
Billy cannot understand the concept of people holding grudges against each other, so there is no way he would ever suspect that Claggart would doing something bad to him. He is very puzzled by what Dansker says to him and cannot comprehend why Claggart would do such a thing, and finally gets the gist of what is happening, although he is still pretty oblivious.