Chapter 14 Summary

One warm evening, Billy went to the uppermost deck to sleep since the heat was uncomfortable in the sleeping area below-deck. Another sailor awakens him from deep sleep and asks Billy to go to a secluded area where the sailor tries to give him money to join him and other crew members in an insurrection. It makes Billy so angry that he stutters out his refusal to go along and threatens to throw the other sailor overboard.

Chapter 14 Analysis

This short chapter does set the stage for the action that brings on the climax. This connects Billy with a possible threat of mutiny so that Claggart will have something to take to the captain. With Billy's violent reaction to the suggestion that he might do this wrong thing, the writer foreshadows again the climax when Billy does use physical force when Claggart accuses...