Myth and Fable in the Novels of William Golding

Myth and Fable in the Novels of
William Golding

(On the occasion of the Noble Prize Award to the celebrity)

In the 20th century world of machines and technology there is an urge to fall on the primitive world of myths and fables as they appear to be the universal pattern for the ancient and also the modern world. The plots of the contemporary 20th century novel attempts at a link up between myths and fables. Such an attempt has been made by many novelists–among others mention may be made of Iris Murdoch and William Golding who have been exploiting this technique to the fullest extent.

Very often William Golding, one of the popular novelists, has been called a writer of fables, but he says “What I would regard a tremendous compliment to myself would be if someone would substitute the word ‘Myth’ for ‘Fable’.” In his essay “Fable” Golding himself has used the term to depict “Lord of the Flies” suggesting that “The fabulist is a moralist. He cannot make a story without a human lesson tucked away in it.” (“Golding’s Lord of the Flies”–John S. Whitley, P. 7). According to Golding, the fabulist is didactic and desires to inculcate a moral lesson. A clear distinction can be made between a fable and a non-fable. In a non-fable the writer is concerned in presenting a realistic picture of life with all its trials and tribula­tions, whereas in a fable the author tries to inculcate a moral lesson into an imaginary story. The fable usually follows a parti­cular pattern which at times may vary, but usually falls into a general mould.

One of the important features that attracted the attention of the readers of Golding’s novels is his use of “Fable” and “Myth” in his novels–Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, Free Fall, and The Spire. Golding says that “Myth is something which comes out from the roots of things in the ancient sense of being, the key to existence, the whole meaning of life, and experience as a whole.” (Puzzles and Epiphanies by Prank Kernode, P. 201). He also acknowledged the description “Myths of total explanation” for his works. The origin of these myths is obscure. They do not resemble the myths of Eliot or those of Joyce. Yet one can find a relation between the myths of Golding and Eliot and Joyce in their symbolist aspirations towards “Prelogical” primitive images.

There is a certain unity of pattern behind Golding’s novels. Four of his novels make use of isolated surroundings. Lord of the Flies takes place on a deserted and uninhabited island, The Inheritors–ina pre-historical setting, Pincher Martin – on a rock in the middle of the Atlantic, and the Spire – in the secluded premises of a cathedral. It appears as if it is important for Golding to withdraw the setting of his plots into an atmosphere of isolation.

In Lord of the Flies, the opening chapter introduces us to the most important protagonists by way of their physical presence and realistic descriptions. This introduction prepares us carefully for the symbolic role that each will play in the fable. At first, Ralph accepted the notion of a world without adults, and in his innocence, he delighted in that idea. But Piggy, the bespectacled boy who believed in the triumph of reason and commonsense is always an adult in a child’s body. Golding invests the character of Piggy with a childish myth – that is around the spectacles. The myth that spectacles denote superior intellect not merely persists, but is taken for granted. This is thoroughly worked into the theme of the novel.

The initial idea or thesis of Lord of the Flies is that “Man is a fallen creature.” Golding opposed the Romantic notion, that man is essentially noble, if freed from the shackles of society. He argues that the evil which is inherent in man should be recognized and restrained, by using the myth of the original sin or the presence of the spirit of Cain in the boys marooned on the uninhabited island. The myth of the original sin finds its reference in the Biblical story of Abel and Cain, the two sons of Adam and Eve. The black mark of this original sin or the spirit of Cain, present in all of us, is found in the boys on the island also. In Lord of the Flies not only Simon but also Ralph was hunted by the wicked. Piggy, the rational boy was also killed in the same way as Simon.

Golding has used various island myths. Ralph and Piggy discover the conch. Golding has invested the conch with a mythic value. The conch imparted to the boys on the island a notion of order and discipline.

Besides Ralph and Jack on the island, another important figure is Simon. He appears to be the only one among all the boys who really understands what is happening to them, for, he is the only one who has an awareness of the evil element in human nature. Golding has intentionally isolated Simon from the rest of the boys for such long spells, to suggest that Simon is a true seer and he is unique among all – one whose vision is different from that of Ralph and Piggy. Simon, through his intuitive perception comes to the central truth of the novel.

“May be there is a beast” ... “may be it is only us.”
“Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind’s essential illness.” (Lord of the Flies - William Golding, P. 97.)

As a result the boys in their innocence reverted to savagery and finally brought ruin upon themselves. Simon’s death is the collective responsibility of all on the island.

The small boy with the mulberry coloured birth mark intro­duces an alien element, the “bestie.” Here the small boy seems to have mistaken the long tree-creepers for snakes. One of the most pathetic aspects of both the reality of the boys and their fabulistic roles as frightened and confused human kind is their insistence on seeking the beast every where but in the place of its origin – the human heart. Golding has beautifully brought out the point that evil is born in the human heart, which we should recognise and dispense with.

At the end of the novel, when rescued by the Naval Officer, Ralph weeps and embraces the officer. He weeps for the dark­ness of man’s heart as evident to him. Golding the school­master, has from the beginning seen them far too realistically invoke that myth. In terms of the fable, Ralph weeps in realising his “fallen nature”, the reason why he and all the boys perversely destroyed themselves.

Golding’s real mythopoeic power becomes apparent only with the publication of his second novel – The Inheritors. In this novel, Golding used the myth of the pre-historic man. For Golding the “Neanderthalers” are supremely innocent and gentle creatures. They have no consciousness and cannot think but they can share images. They think in pictures and in conditioned memory. They had no idea of deceit, had an obscure sense of life and their lives are controlled by seasons. Like an animal they apprehend the world with their senses. They depend much upon involuntary reflexes – keen scent, night vision and acuteness of hearing. Above all, the feat of recording observa­tions of the activities of Homo sapiens, made with the sensory equipment of Lok is really astonishing. One is constantly reminded of the involuntary powers that sustain him. His ears speak to him even if he will not listen, small areas of skin react with useful knowledge, and the nose marvellously distinguishes and identifies. In the heart of the novel there is a very significant passage in which Lok and Fa observe the communal activities of the new people from a vantage point in a tree. Golding has the authority of the real imaginative power to make his creatures what he wills in the myth that he writes. The description of the Neanderthal man makes one believe that Golding is really at the height of his myth-making power.

The difference between the Inheritors and the Lord of the Flies is not so great, because in the Inheritors also, we find Golding preoccupied with innocence. Golding called himself once “a propagandist for Neanderthal man.” In the Inheritors the Neanderthal man is superseded by the Homo sapiens who has a better brain and weapons, and it is the innocence of the doomed predecessor and the activities of the new man, intelligent and so capable of evil that we see until the last pages of the novel. Golding supposes that even though we are the new men with all the developed consciousness and intelligence, we cannot recapture that innocence and natural awe for Oa, the mother goddess. Golding clearly brought out the idea that the progress in civilization and the developed consciousness are the price of the guilt and the evil in the “Inheritors.” Their guilt in the price of their evolutionary success because it is the civilized who are corrupt.

Pincher Martin describes one man’s struggle to retain his identity in the face of an alien nature. Golding used the myth of the false world created by Martin’s imagination. Pincher Martin makes himself believe that there is a rock in the middle of the Atlantic, providentially there to help him to remain alive. Martin is alone on a rock waiting to be rescued. It is important for him to keep himself healthy and sane till rescue arrives. The first thing he has to do if he is to achieve this is to humanize his rock and turn it into something he can control and understand. Golding worked out the myth with intrinsic details. Martin names the parts of the rock like Oxford circus, Piccadilly and Liecester square. He calls the rock “Rockall” because it is a real rock. He invents out of the memories of his childhood days the geology and animal life of the rock. He is aware of his shrinking identity and he is prepared to do anything rather than accept the loss of himself. To maintain one’s identity in his circumstances is as hard as it was for Ralph to remain alive in Lord of the Flies. Even sleep is dangerous in such a situation. Martin is so afraid of sleep that he could not dare relax even for an instant from the vigilance over his personality. The reason for this is that man’s identity is a fragile thing and the forces of darkness are constantly tugging at it. To think that one can retain absolute control over one’s identity is both foolish and dangerous.

At the end of the novel we suddenly move out of Pincher Martin’s consciousness into our normal consciousness. Then we come to understand that the world he had been inhabiting so far, is not the real world but a mirage conjured up by the drowning man’s desperate imagination. Martin drowned without even having time to take off his sea boots. All the rest was his desperate desire to stay alive to retain his identity. Golding worked out the myth of the false world created by Martin’s imagination so well, that we also believed it till the end as a real rock.

Martin is a thoroughly fallen man. His human consciousness is an evolutionary specialization, used to ensure his survival. He is hideously greedy and so the recurrent metaphors from eating.

“He takes the best part, the best seat, the most money, the best notice and the best woman.” (Pincher Martin by William Golding, P. 109.) Martin boasts that he controls and imposes his will on the world. He is made to discover that the cause of apparently evil manifestations lies within himself, and that he can cure the world by curing his own disorder. But it cannot be dispersed by intelligence, and it only keeps him alive for torture; with the same effort that he puts forth to preserve his identity and “self” he creates his hell. One may question what is this “self” to which Martin clings so desperately. This “self” is not something to which we find the beasts clinging, or it is not something which had much meaning for Lok or the old creature Mal, but this “self” is a product of civilization. It is because of this “self” that man names things, constructs mansions, and fights battles trying, vainly to perpetuate himself and to deny that he is a “temporary structure.”

He is a man who tries to live as a true “Inheritor” totally in control of himself and in command of the world and other people. But this can only be done at the price of repressing the knowledge that man owes God a death. From the futility of Martin’s struggle, Golding made clear the inevitability of death and the transcience of the “self.”

            Free Fall is Golding’s social novel. The novel deals with Sammy Mountjoy when and where it was that he stopped being innocent and became guilty. The myth of Free Fall is essentially that of all Golding’s works – the Fall of man and his infected will. The fall of Sammy Mountjoy is the fall from innocence. The myth of Sammy’s fall is analogous to the myth of the fall of Adam and Eve from their state of innocence. Golding believes in the folly of man, the frailty of the human will, and the human sense of paradise lost. He also believes in divine mercy. The myth of Sammy’s fall has accumulated an enormous and various theology. Sammy Mountjoy is examining his life with a view to discovering a pattern. He wants to find a connection between his two worlds of experience – one the world of innocence and the other the world of his guilt – betrayal of Beatrice. In his childhood the two worlds are interlocked. As an adolescent, he chooses to desecrate Beatrice. He finds again the other world in a prison camp, where he is interrogated by Dr. Halde, the Psychiatrist, who puts him in a dark cell. At the height of his agony Sammy is let out of his cell, forgiven, but he finds Beatrice as an incontinent idiot in an asylum. He could not reconcile the two worlds, but Golding builds a kind of bridge between them. The bridge is mythologically substantial.

The theme of the novel as in his earlier works is innocence and retribution. Sammy discovered that his act of the seduction and betrayal of Beatrice is the starting point of the guilt and the loss of his innocence. Sammy’s fall is free. Just as Adam did not have to eat the Apple, and just as his fall is free, and had to be paid for later on, so is Sammy’s fall. He knows that he has done something which proved fatal to Beatrice, but he cannot retract it now. Driven by his guilt ridden conscience, he desperately desires to do something for Beatrice and atone for his sin. He realises that his expiation of the sin might bring him divine grace. Through this realization of Sammy Mountjoy, Golding conveys to us, however, that the worst sinner a man is, he can qualify himself for the divine grace by a clear cleansing of his heart and a frank confession of his error with humility.

In the Spire the principal action of the novel is the building up of the Spire. The story, as in Golding’s earlier novels, deals with a single obsessional act, taken from a point at which there is no turning , and rushing forward to its inevitable conclusion. The Spire is a novel about vision. The vision motivates Jocelin, the Dean of the Cathedral Church in his obsessive drive towards his goal, that of “the building of the Spire.”

The massive structure of the Spire and its building up to an unimaginable height reminds us of the myth of the tower, the top of which would reach the heaven, lest they should be scattered upon the entire earth. Then the Lord told them that all the people are one and they had one language. But this did not prevent them from building the tower. Then the God confounded their language. So each could not understand the other and they left the tower unfinished. The tower is called Babel, because it is at this place that the God confounded the language of the people. Golding made use of the myth of the tower of Babel to illustrate the physical massiveness of the Spire. The only difference is that the tower of Babel was left unfinished whereas the Spire was built.

In his earlier novel Free Fall Golding dealt with the immorality of using human beings. Sammy Mountjoy is guilty of this sin. In his case the specific sin was sexual. But a man’s cruellest sin, against another man is to treat him as an object or a thing. Jocelin in his obsession, uses two men and their women and ruined their lives. This is undoubtedly evil. And it is out of this crime against human beings rises the Spire which is a symbol of faith. The moral point here is not so simple.

The moral may be made clear in the sentence “there is no innocent work God knows where God may be.” (Spire by William Golding) Jocelin considers that in the range of his vision, evil and good are intermixed, and that there is no innocent work for man’s hands. He understood the mixed nature of man’s works even in praise of God. If this is the moral of the Spire, it is not a very surprising one. Golding has treated original sin, the Fall of Man, the guilt, Damnation and Freewill in original ways, and the originality lies in his treatment.

In all the novels, we find Golding writing from an unusually strong moral assumptions. He gives an imaginative shape to such a moral assumption in the “Myths” that he writes. According to Golding, myth is not a thing of the past, but an integral part of our present life. Thus he treated the myth of the original sin and the myth of the fall of man in Lord of the Flies and Free Fall respectively. These myths treated by Golding are inseparable associated with the lives of all. The original sin is still present in all of us and our very existence is a result of Adam’s fall. The texture of his Fables is generally bare and simple. We observe him constantly pre-occupied with innocence and guilt in all his novels. Golding says evil is an indwelling element in human nature and he insisted that one should recognise and control it. He felt that evil is the price of the developed human consciousness and the progress in civilization, because it is the civilized who are corrupt. Golding opines that the idea of evil in man is correspondingly increasing with the increase in the intellect of man, his power of reasoning, and sense of logic.

Golding’s classic and magnum opus, Lord of Flies, alone is enough to justify the highest award of Nobel Prize to him for Literature this year. His work abides the attention of the reading public all over the world.