Theological Message In Darkness Visible

Darkness Visible is Golding’s most explicit expression of his religiouspropensities. Critics find much religious content in Golding’s early works, thoughperhaps in a less bold and recognizable manner. Golding’s often allegorical fictionmakes broad use of allusions to mythology, and Christian symbolism. As theologianDavid Anderson remarks,“Golding’s novels are theologically oriented.”Darkness Visible is dark and complex, and remains Golding’s most obscure work.Much of the novel’s moral intensity and technical complexity lies in its rich biblicalreferences, which are read as a reenactment of the Bible in contemporary terms.However, with the saintly idiotic protagonist, the intertextual link between the noveland the Bible seems elusive. This thesis is a tentative reading of the intertextuality asparodic. And it attempts to explore the novel’s biblical parody with a view of a betterunderstanding of the theological message in the novel.Besides, the thesis considers that Darkness Visible is explicitly set over againstscriptural eschatology. And it is also the novel most powerfully concerned with theallusions of revelation—divine and demonic. The thesis is also going to read thenovel’s theological message by analyzing its apocalyptic motifs and a set of allusionsto Revelation.