One symbolic representation of Billy Budd is Captain Vere's death from a musket ball shot from a porthole. Captain Vere chooses law over emotion in the sentencing of Billy. The musket ball doesn't decide and doesn't favor whom it's going to kill. It's symbolic that the justice which killed Billy is the same justice which killed Vere.
After Billy kills Claggart, Vere is faced with a cross-road. He thinks of Billy like a son. Though Vere sympathizes with Billy, he's pressured to follow the rules of the navy. Mutiny was a popular treason among the navy, and Vere wouldn't let something like th…
