An Archetypal Study On Lord Of The Flies And Heart Of Darkness

Issues about human nature have been frequently discussed since ancient times. As the two main sources of western literature, both Greek-Roman mythologies and the Holy Bible touch the question about evil aspect in human nature. Consequently, literary works reflecting such idea through different means are numerous. The contemporary novelist William Golding, who won the Nobel Prize in 1983 by virtue of his Lord of the Flies, shows his opinion in most of his works that humans are born evil; the novelist Joseph Conrad, who lived about half a century earlier than Golding, also mirrors similar view in his Heart of Darkness, which is based on the author's own travel experience in the Congo. Moreover, it is notable that the stories in both novels are set in a primitive place that are remote from the civilized society, hence the corruptions of the protagonists in both works remind readers of the first fall of men in the Garden of Eden. Accordingly, the mythic qualities of both works create their association with mythologies. Aimed to dig out the similar mythic patterns in the two novels, the present thesis, which consists of four chapters plus introduction and conclusion, applies Frye's theories on archetypal criticism that prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s to the comparative study of the two works.The introductory section gives a concise review of the previous comprehensive studies on the two authors as well as the archetypal analysis of the two authors carried out by scholars both domestic and abroad.In Chapter One, the origin and development of Frye's theory on archetypal criticism are briefly introduced at first. Then his views to regard literature as a system are summarized with brief analysis on the positions of the two novels in the whole system.Chapter Two and Chapter Three mainly deal with the similar archetypal images appearing in both novels. The analysis in chapter two shows that the traditional symbolic meaning of darkness is conveyed in both novels, nevertheless, as its antithesis, the symbolic meanings of white or light are reversed in the two works; besides, the archetypal background settings in both novels, which resemble paradise, turn out to be the Garden of Eden, or rather, the lost paradise. Chapter three mainly deals with the Dionysian characters as well as the scapegoat heroes in the two novels.Chapter Four compares the archetypal themes of rites of passage included in both novels. Such archetypes in both novels are divided into three phases, which are seriatim discussed respectively in the two novels so as to figure out the similarities and the differences in the themes reflected by the two novels. The comparative study shows that the final phases of rite of passage in the two novels vary with each other, showing the two authors' different views about the influences of evil human nature on the society. Furthermore, this chapter also analyzes some of the reversed archetypal themes in the two novels.The final part presents the similar themes reflected in both novels, including the dark side of human nature, the fragility of civilization. In addition, the two writers' tragic views on such themes are also discussed with the conclusion that Golding's tragic view on human society is more thorough than Conrad's.