On The Archetypes In Lord Of The Flies

Lord of the Flies is generally considered to be the masterpiece of William Golding, one of the most famous writers in20th century. It is about a group of schoolboys who are stranded on a deserted island during an imaginary world war. Golding was awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in1983for his mythology of human’s dark nature and the colourful kingdom of archetypes. Many researches on Lord of the Flies, both domestic and overseas, focus on the perspectives such as the good or evil nature of human being, the origin and evolution of religion, the derivation of authority, democracy vs dictatorship, the absence of feminism or irony and so on. Their theoretical support is drawn from various sources including the religious theory of original sin, Freudian psychological analysis, Jung’s theories of collective unconsciousness and archetypal criticism and many other social political or social cultural theories. These researches differ in theories, approaches and conclusions.Based on the previous researches, this thesis aims at analyzing the archetypes to probe the great significance of Lord of the Flies by Archetypal Criticism Theories. Archetype means original pattern. The archetypal criticism focuses on the exploration of the ultimate source of literary works and original source of critical glamour in the light of literary representation. Many references and allusions in Greek mythology and Bible are constantly used and represented in the form of archetypes by Golding. According to Northrop Frye’s definition of archetype, there exist archetypal images, figures, motifs, plots and background. They play vital roles in this novel. The seemingly fragmentary and casual archetypes form a structural relevance, which determines the interior consistence of the theme of Lord of the Flies and the distinctive aesthetic values.The assignment of this thesis is divided into three parts. Its main contents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which mainly makes a brief summary of the previous researches of the novel from various aspects, the contemporary researches about archetypes in it and gives a comprehensive view of the necessity, importance and meaning of the study of the archetypal qualities in the novel.The second part is the main body, which is made up of four chapters:Chapter One mainly introduces the theoretical foundation of archetypal criticism: Frazerian mythological theory, Jung’s collective unconsciousness and Frye’s archetypal criticism, which are the most important bases of the study of the archetypal qualities in the novel.Chapter Two is the core of the thesis, introducing the archetypal characters in Lord of the Flies. The archetypal characters are derived from Greek mythology—Jack is Dionysus; Roger is Agave; Ralph and Piggy are Pentheus, and Bible—Simon is Jesus. Expound and prove the resemblance to Greek mythology and Bible and then lend some support to the motifs of fall, quest and salvation from the perspective of archetypal characters.Chapter Three focuses on the archetypal motifs in the novel. Lord of the Flies stresses much on the exploration of motifs, which is influenced by lots of factors, including Golding’s personal experiences, Greek literature, cultural and social background as well as trends of thoughts. The archetypal motifs consist of motifs of Fall, Quest, Salvation, which root in plot of Adam and Eve and legend of Jesus in Bible. These motifs are revealed by the great potential in Lord of the Flies, through which we can excavate the root of fall and explore the nature of human and the way of salvation.Chapter Four gives a thorough description of archetypal images in Lord of the Flies, which includes archetypal images of fire, woods, brightness and darkness and beast. Each of them is an autonomous unit, but they have their relevance with one another. These images are the deduction of human’s civilization from hopefulness to helplessness and the marks of human’s civilization from summit to low ebb then in embarrassing position.The last part is conclusion, which makes a summary to the preceding chapters, points out the main purpose of this thesis and highlights significance and importance of the archetypes in Lord of the Flies. This thesis has certain theoretical and realistic significance. With regard to theory, the analyses of the archetypes in the novel, which are on comprehensive analysis of archetypal criticism, Greek mythology and Bible, has a sense of theoretical direction on applying archetypal criticism in literature. Furthermore, this thesis also has certain realistic significance. The analysis of archetypes in Lord of the Flies especially that of archetypal characters, motifs and images can reassess the novel and grasp the nature and connotation of literary output from a more profound level.