The Comic Mode In William Golding's Later Novels

There is a considerable difference between the later novels of William Golding (1911-1993) and the earlier ones. Although this disparity has attracted critical attention, producing interpretations of various kinds, scholarship in William Golding has so far left an important perspective unexamined, that is, the comic turn in the author's later novels. Starting from The Pyramid, through Darkness Visible and The Paper Men, to the Sea Trilogy, Golding moves continuously towards a comic expression, adopting the comic mode varying in form and meaning. This dissertation, then, is an attempt to study William Golding's exploitation of the comic mode in his later novels by defining and analyzing the specific comic form in each novel in relation to its thematic concerns, with the view of a better understanding of Golding's message and art. The present study dedicates four chapters respectively to Golding's later novels in addition to the Introduction and the Conclusion. It discusses the social comedy in The Pyramid, burlesque in Darkness Visible, farce in The Paper Men, and tragicomedy in the Sea Trilogy, in an effort to elucidate on the various forms of comedy in the above-mentioned novels. The contents of dissertation are as follows:The Introduction starts with a definition of Golding's later phase by briefing the relevant critical opinions, arguing that the comic turn in Golding's fiction from The Pyramid down to the Sea Trilogy serves as proof in the division of the author's output. It then takes a bird's-eye survey of the comic forms present in these works while giving a brief review of the relevant critical comments.The first chapter explores the form of social comedy in The Pyramid. It first gives a description of social comedy as well as a sketch of critical views on the comic mode in the novel. The chapter continues to argue that as a social comedy The Pyramid focuses on the relationship between the individual and the society. Artistically the novel displays a comic prism ranging from the light-hearted to the dark and gloomy; thematically it targets its satire against the rigid social stratification in the first half of the twentieth century British society. The chapter tries to unravel the comic mechanism in the novel by explicating the motif of exposure and the presentation of the comic characters. The motif of exposure is the principal comic device that reverberates throughout the three sections of the novel both as a source of comic effects and as a disclosure of the uncomfortable truth about the hierarchical society. The comic characters form the social stratum in the novel, ranging from caricatures to the well-polished, round characters when the unreliable narrator traverses the comic distance and achieves a real understanding of them.Chapter Two focuses on Darkness Visible, reading the comic mode in the novel as a burlesque of the Bible. The chapter argues that this reading is vital in understanding the enigmatic novel. It starts with a definition of burlesque, applies it to the novel at hand, and surveys the relevant critical opinions. Since burlesque in Darkness Visible involves an intertextual and interactive relationship with the Bible, the chapter continues to clarify Golding's religious stance for a better understanding of Golding's intended message. The chapter argues that Darkness Visible is Golding's most explicit expression of his religious propensities and religion is the central issue in the novel. Golding's use of the comic approach in treatment of the serious religious contents, however, makes the meaning of the work elusive. This chapter endeavours to explicate the meaning of the novel by first combing the burlesque material in the novel and then defining its purposes. It maintains that burlesque serves as an important strategy both for the author's comprehensive satire against the contemporary England where sexual permissiveness, faithlessness, scientific rationalism and other problems prevail, and for his language critique.Chapter Three explores Golding's furtherance in the use of the comic mode in The Paper Men. After a review of the relevant critical opinions, the chapter points out the aggressive nature of farce. It argues that the novel is a sustained farce with its extensive use of this comic form, its multi-fold substructure of chase and flight, and its subversive characterization of the writer as a clowning artist. Golding uses paper as the central prop of the farce in his lampooning against the depthlessness and triviality of the literati and the follies of the literary industry. The chapter also unravels the structure of the farce in the novel with an analysis of the twin themes of chase and flight in terms of their various layers of meaning: the actual, moral, spiritual, critical and artistic. The chapter also studies the image of the clowning artist in relation to the Barthesian theme of the death of the author and to Golding's evolving understanding of the power shift between the writer and the critic.Chapter Four is devoted to the analysis of the tragicomedy in To the Ends of the Earth trilogy. The chapter argues that the tragicomedy in the novel achieves an organic combination of the tragic and the comic and shows an ascending movement towards the comedy. Following a review of the related scholarship is an attempt to define the nature of tragicomic mode in the trilogy. The chapter then focuses on Golding's exploitation of dual perspectives in Rites of Passage, arguing that the shift between Talbot's and Colley's perspectives is essentially one between the comedy of manners and tragedy, and the transformation is achieved by traversing the comic distance before penetrating into the tragic essence of the matter. The chapter maintains that the dominant comic mode in Close Quarters and Fire down Below is festive comedy set in both communal hysteria and individual irrationality. Apart from the close reading of the separate volumes, the chapter views the trilogy as a tragicomedy of bildungsroman, in which tragedy is transcended and comedy is achieved.The Conclusion reiterates the argument of the dissertation. It makes a general comparison between Golding's earlier and later phases of fiction writing, extract the common features of the various forms of comedy in the novels concerned, and concludes with the hope that the present study might provide a new perspective in Golding scholarship.