Darkness Visible As A Myth About The Modern Society

As the laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983,William Golding is one of Britain's most famous writers of the 20th century.His novel Darkness Visible won the James Taylor Black Memorial Award,Britain's most prestigious literary award.Golding prefers to describe his creations as "myth" than "fables".However,existing studies on the novel have mainly explored the characters and thematic significance in terms of symbolism and psychoanalysis instead of setting the text into a broader context from the perspective of myth.Therefore,this thesis is to employ Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of myth to analyze the mythical structure of the novel and the mythical thinking of its protagonist,aiming to reveal the meaning and value of Golding's mythical creation for the modern society.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One introduces William Golding and his work Darkness Visible,summarizes previous studies on the novel at home and broad,and explains the focus and structure of the thesis.Chapter Two analyzes the mythical structure of the novel in three aspects,namely,space,time and the sacred numbers.In the presentation of space,the novel emphasizes the opposition between the realms of the sacred and the profane,and also the symbolic function of light,which accords with the mythical style.Similarly,in the presentation of time,the novel equates the passage of time to destiny and order of justice,so that the static opposition is transformed into a dynamic struggle.Meanwhile,the novel imitates the mythical style in the use of numbers.The sacred number seven is used to symbolize perfection,and four the order of the sacredness.Through the analysis of the mythical structure,the chapter points out that the opposition between the sacred and the profane in the outside world is rooted in the struggle between Matty,representative of light and the good,and Sophy,representative of darkness and the evil.Chapter Three reveals the mythical thinking of the protagonist Matty through analysis of his concrete use of language,and instinctive thinking that enables him to understand others and perceive the world with an understanding heart,and his opposition to reason especially compared with Sophy.These all account for the reason why he looks incongruous in the modern society.Chapter Four explores the implication of Golding's writing the novel in the mythical style.First,it points out the problems of the modern man as a result of their loss of mythical thinking,including lack of faith,loss of ability to communicate efficiently,and fanaticism for politics.Then,the chapter reveals the possible ways out of the plight implied by the novel.From Matty's experiences,it can be inferred that the modern man may be regenerated by recognizing his inner evil,showing love for fellow humans,and understanding nature as friends.Chapter Five is conclusion.It briefly summarizes what has been discussed and points out that through the mythical writing of the modern world,the novel not only criticizes the modern man's spiritual problems,but also offers possible solutions,and that the mythical style foregrounds the essentiality and entirety of experience and conveys some important ethical messages—both the good and evil are inherent in human nature and man's ethical self emerges from the struggle between the good and evil;further,transcendental experience beyond the limitation of human reason is an important part of man's experience.