William Golding's works: Character Analyses
Character Analyses:Ralph: An attractive boy and a natural leader, the sort of intelligent, well-adjusted, athletic boy who easily might become the idol of his schoolmates. We meet him in the first chapter as he leads the way out of the jungle while Piggy lumbers after him. That he is fair-haired suggests that he is a child of fortune, one who is blessed by nature with grace, strength, and luck. There is recklessness to his manner. He seems happy at the prospect of living on a deserted island, away from the influence of adults. The setting fosters dreams of heroic adventure in which he is the protagonist. He will overcome all of the difficulties present in his surroundings, lead a joyously exciting jungle life, then optimistically await a glamorous rescue by his naval-officer father. Unfortunately, his dreams are frustrated when nature and his fellow youths refuse to cooperate with his romantic vision. And, as his dream becomes more difficult of attainment, he loses confidence and calmness and begins to indulge himself in escape fantasies and dreams of the past. Gradually, he forfeits the respect of the other boys. A contrasting characteristic to his tendency to dream is his common sense. He is quick to assess the situation of the boys in realistic terms. He sees what must be done for their survival and rescue and sets about arranging parliamentary meetings, building a signal fire, and constructing huts. He appraises the advice of Piggy according to its practicality. He fights against the superstition and terror of the boys as being detrimental to the organized progress of their society. Ralph is by no means a perfect character. He is often mean to those weaker than himself, particularly the faithful Piggy. Occasionally he performs rash and foolish actions. He even joins in the murder of Simon. He shares in the universal guilt of man. But he does show a clearsightedness that none of the others possess in the same way. It is his common-sense view that prevails at the end of the novel when he graduates from his experience on the island with a more mature knowledge of himself and the world around him. He recognizes the universal presence of evil as a condition of life. He is capable of appreciating the tragedy of the loss of innocence that is the common heritage of man.
More than any other character, Ralph represents the outlook of the author-and the outlook that he expects his reader to share. He is not as intellectual as Piggy and he is not as religious as Simon, but he dreams the dreams of freedom and adventure that enliven the progress of western society. He is the most complete, most human, and most heroic of the characters in the novel, and the one with whom readers most readily identify.
Jack Merridew: "He was tall, thin, and bony, and his hair was red beneat the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness." A cruel and ugly bully, he early develops a taste for violence. He is a leader of the choir at first, and then of the hunters. His leadership resides in his ability to threaten and frighten those under him. He is always ready for a fight. His victory over Piggy represents the triumph of violence over intellect, as he smashes one of the lenses of the fat boy's glasses. The knife that he carries is a symbol of the death and destruction that accompany his every act. He does have some attractive qualities-bravery and resourcefulness. But these are easily obscured by his wrath, envy, pride, hatred, and lust for blood. He is constantly attempting to weaken Ralph's hold on the boys.
He suggests opposite measures, he shouts abusively, he threatens, he is constantly demanding to be made chief. In all, he is a complete stranger to polite behavior. In his constant rivalry with Ralph, and in his constant preoccupation with killing, whether it be pigs or fellow human beings, he is a diabolical force, plunging the boys into a chaos of brute activities. His egotistical outbursts and his temper tantrums suggest that he is immature in his social development. But as hunter and killer he is extremely precocious. The readiness with which he throws himself into the existence of a savage, as he pauses to sniff the air for scent, or falls to his knees to inspect the pig droppings, or runs naked and painted through the forest, suggests the flimsiness of the restraints and patterns of civilization in a personality in which the destructive passions flow strongly.
If the novel is read as religious allegory, Jack emerges as an envoy of the Devil, enticing the other boys to sin. If the novel is read as a representation of Freudian principles, Jack represents the primitive urges of the id. In the symbolic representation of the processes of life and death, Jack suggests, both in the black cloaks which he and his followers wear and in his association with darkness, the power of death. In his first appearance, coming out of the "darkness of the forest" to face Ralph, whom he cannot see because his back is to the sun, Jack represents the Satanic and deathly force coming to confront the divine and life giving man of light. The blood that he wallows in is a further representation of deathliness. When, after his first kill, "Jack transferred the knife to his left hand and smudged blood over his forehead as he pushed down the plastered hair," he unconsciously imitates the ritual of the tribal initiation of the hunter, whose face is covered with the blood of his first kill. Finally, if the novel is read as the story of human civilization, Jack represents the influences of unreason and confusion and violence as they operate counter to the progress of human virtues and social institutions.
Piggy: This intellectual is an outsider. He manages for a time to have some influence on the group through Ralph, who recognizes his brilliance and puts into effect several of his suggestions. But, generally, the boys are quick to ridicule him for his fatness, asthma, and lack of physical skill. An orphan brought up under the care of an aunt, he has developed into a sissy. He cannot do anything for himself, whether it be to gather fruit, blow the conch shell, or build huts. He always tries to hide when the other boys are involved in manual labor. At home, presumably, his favorite pastime would be sitting in a chair, reading. His frequent appeals to the adult world, and his attempt to model his behavior on that of teachers and other grown-ups evokes the contempt of the boys. Further, he makes the mistake of pressing too hard for acceptance. In his first appearance in Chapter 1, he attempts so diligently to win the favor or Ralph that he only alienates Ralph at the same time that he gives him personal information about himself that Ralph can then use to hurt him. His life on the island is a series of unhappy embarrassments, including being taunted by the boys, being beaten, and having his glasses broken and stolen. Finally, at the instigation of Jack, he is killed by Roger.
He represents an attitude of mind that is conservative and civilized. His eyeglasses, which are constantly steamed, and that he absolutely needs to see anything, separate him from the world of activity and adventure in which he cannot participate as freely as the other boys, and confine him to the realm of his own mind. Possibly because he is the bookish member of the group, he tends to be more scientific than the rest, and also more skeptical. His knowledge of science is shown in his plan to build sundials. His skepticism keeps him from participating in the superstitions of the other boys. He knows that the world of adults and books would not abide the legend of the "beastie."
Piggy is necessarily more civilized than anyone else because, with his meagre physical equipment, only in the most civilized of societies could he survive. Ironically, with his build, his nickname "Piggy," and his squealing, he resembles the sacrificial pig. When he dies, his "arms and legs twitched a bit, like a pig's after it has been killed." His superior intellect is of little use to him in the later stages of the novel. In the increasingly more degenerate society of the boys, the intellectual is lowered to the status of the beast. Then he is sacrificed and symbolically eaten.
Simon: An artistically and religiously sensitive boy who looks, without blinking, into the evil realities that plague the island. In spite of his delicate frame and frequent fainting spells, he is willing to work and is brave in the face of physical danger. At the same time, he seems to be something of a mystic, stealing off into the depths of the jungle for moments of solitude and meditation. Perhaps it is his belief in spiritual reality that diminishes his fear of death and his attachment to the things of the world. He works at building the huts, and is happy to gather fruit for the littluns without any selfish motives. He enters the dark forest without any fear of strange "beasts." He does not share the fears of the other boys because he feels that the spirit world does not hold any terrors.
He is right in saying that the only "beasts" are the ones that people create. He is perhaps wrong in underestimating this evil, even though it is a subjective one. He discovers, in his conversation with the Lord of the Flies, that even he himself contains a destructive evil. And he discovers at the cost of his life the full power of the evil that throbs in the hearts of the boys. After solving the mystery of the "beast" by discovering the dead parachutist on the mountain, he is rewarded by being beaten and stabbed to death by the horde of maniacal boys.
It is in terms of the religious meaning of the story that Simon is most important. He represents the idea that, even in the most unattached and spiritual personality, an evil presence makes itself known. On the social level, he represents a creative force that is cut off from the rest of society because of the predominance of violent impulses in that society.
On the historical level, Simon represents the gradual alienation of the creative artist, in this century, as he is forced further and further into a position of isolation until he climbs so high in his ivory tower that he can commune only with the spirits.
Roger: A furtive, quiet boy, who evolves into a torturer and terrorist, eager to throw rocks, or roll boulders, or prod his fellow man with spears. He represents a different kind of destructiveness than that of Jack. Where Jack acts in fury, Roger performs his treacheries with cool detachment. He appears to know full well the evil of his actions, but not really to care. He actually enjoys being called upon to play the role of torturer. It is such perversity that makes him much more evil in the mind of the reader. Whereas Simon joined Jack and Ralph on their ascent of the mountain because of his spiritual confidence. Roger willingly joins Jack and Ralph in search of the "beast," because he is so conversant with the realm of evil that he fears nothing. His own diabolism is his security from evil mishap.
In terms of the historical and social allegory, Roger is the professional exterminator of human beings that usually is found in the entourage of a tyrant. On the religious level, Roger represents the complete death of conscience; he is the epitome of evil. In the Freudian myth he represents, even more explicitly than does Jack, the force of the id. In connection with the imagery of life and death, he suggests and absolute lust for death.
Samneric: Sam and Eric, identical twins, are extremely civilized, possibly because since birth they have been a small, two-man society. They are shy and pleasant. It is the twins who spot the corpse of the parachutist on the top of the mountain and run in panic to report a beast. They are not especially brave, but they remain faithful to Ralph long after the others. In their cheery comradeship they represent the best of the English schoolboy tradition. That Jack and Roger are able, at the end, to make them serve as hunters and to betray Ralph is an indication of the power of evil on the island that even they must share in it. They resemble the relatively innocent and humane members of civilized society who are forced to submit to the powers of mechanization, and sacrifice their personalities to become part of a process of destruction.
Maurice: Although good-natured and smiling, he is easily swayed by the evil influence of Roger and Jack. He possesses qualities of pleasantness and affability, and would be a happy member of a civilized community. But on the island he is forced to bend before the will of the hunters.
Henry: A leader among the littluns. Golding seems to be pointing out that even in the smallest and least significant units of society there are the same combinations of leaders and followers with all of the attendant duties and rights. It is Henry whom Roger follows in Chapter 4, in order to throw stones in his direction.
Percival: A small, sickly, and fearful littlun. He reports that he saw the beast, and that the beast came out of the sea.
Johnny: A healthy and naturally belligerent littlun.
British Officer: The only character from the adult world is proud, pretentious, and blind to the faults of his society-just as the boys are blind to theirs. Though he represents the authority that the boys have shown they needed on the island, he also symbolizes the weakness, destructiveness, and hypocrisy of the society from which he comes.
Home/ First Paper/ Biography/ Bibliography/ Works/Themes/Characters/A view on Ralph/Religious items/ Symbology/Simbolism/ Shared links/General link page/ My essay/
© Juan Javier Herraiz Pujante
E- Mail:juanhepu@alumni.uv.es
More articles: [Next] [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]Página creada y actualizada por grupo "mmm".
Para cualquier cambio, sugerencia,etc. contactar con: fores@uv.es
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
Universitat de València Press
Creada: 08/10/2000 Última Actualización: 08/10/2000