Chapter 25 Summary

All the crew is assembled on the mainyard for the execution. At the last minute, Billy exclaims, "God bless Captain Vere!" All the crew members are shocked. They expect a convicted felon about to be hanged to condemn his executioner. Almost without thinking, the entire crew responds, "God bless Captain Vere!" At the moment of death a vapory fleece is hanging low in the East and is shot through with "a soft glory as of the fleece of the Lamb of God seen in mystical vision, and simultaneously therewith, watched by the wedged mass of upturned faces, Billy ascended." At the moment of death a hanging victim normally spasms, but there is no movement when this young man dies, a reaction that is marveled at by those who witness the execution.

Chapter 25 Analysis

It's impossible not to think of the dying words of...