Fall·Warning·Salvation

This thesis studies the archetypes in William Golding's Lord of the Flies. The theoretical perspective is mainly based on Frye's myth and archetypal theory. Archetypal criticism is virtually a kind of criticism that helps the critics to study the literature as a whole. Myth criticism demands concentration on the work of literature in which myths or mythical elements are discerned; and it requires the critic to consider the function of myth as part of the total structure of a given work. Since Swedish Academy remarks about Golding: "for his novel which, with perspicuity of realistic narrative art and diversity and university of myth, illuminate the world of today", this thesis intends to study archetypes which Golding employs both consciously and subconsciously and their relationship with the theme of the novel.This thesis includes four parts:Part One is a general introduction to William Golding, Lord of the Flies and the critical reception of Lord of the Flies. This part also contains the reason and significance of choosing the topic as the topic of this thesis. The intend is not to add anything new to Frye's theory but simply to illustrate the effectiveness of his archetypal theory when it is employed to analyze a literary work and the effectiveness in helping understanding a literary work by making an attempt to study in detail the archetypes contained in Lord of the Flies and, the relationship between those archetypes and the theme of the novel.Part Two is the theory on which this thesis is based. It studies the concept of "archetype" - a typical or recurring image, a communicable unit. Then, it introduces Frye's myth and archetypal theory. Frye calls myth the matrix of literature and the fundamental archetype of it. Frye sees literature as a reconstructed mythology, with its structural principles derived from those of myth. This part also gives a brief comment on Frye's theory. Frye studied literature as a whole, paying attention to the law of literature development itself, which greatly helps us in the understanding of the nature, origin, development and evolution of literature. As a reaction to the New Criticism, Frye holds that putting a piece of literature into a larger cultural background would help us to avoid the narrow way of thinking and overcome the tendency to the extreme formalism. Though Frye criticizes New Criticism, a kind of formalism criticism theory, he himself does not get rid of the formalism. Heavily influenced by historicism, he applies it mechanically to the development course of literature.Part Three is the main body of the thesis. It studies different archetypes contained in the novel: archetypal motif, mythic narrative pattern, archetypal character, archetypal setting and image. It is easy to seathe mythic narrative pattern contained in Lord of the Flies, which is a modern version of Pentheus myth. Golding put his characters on an isolated island. Shortly after they are stranded than they begin to fall because of their inherent evil, manifested by Dionysian Jack. Though there is Piggy, the Wise Old Man, helps their chief - Ralph try to make the boys on the island maintain civilized, he is killed by Roger - Jack's chief henchman. Simon, the Christ-figure, is the only boy who discovers the real beast. But unfortunately, he is brutally killed before he brings the salvation message to the fallen people. Different from other critics, the author of this thesis sees Simon as the most important figure in the novel, where the warning aim of Golding lies.Part Four is a brief conclusion based on the analysis made above. In this part the thesis studies how archetypes function in revealing Golding's theme of the novel - fall, warning and salvation. Because Golding thinks that man is inherently evil, under certain circumstances, this evil side emerges overwhelmingly, so the fall is doomed to happen. From the analysis made in 3.3.4, the shortcomings of Archetypal Criticism can be seen when it is employed in finding archetypal characters in a literary work. The theory only e...