Lord of the Flies - Characters

Piggy

• Pragmatic

  • CONTEXT: presented as the Ego (Freud)

  • “life […] is scientific”

  • “unless we get frightened of people”

  • ““Which is better - to be a pack of painted n——— like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is?““

  • ““What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What’s grown-ups going to think?””

• An outsider

  • “the boys were a closed circuit of sympathy with Piggy outside“

  • ““I thought they wanted the conch”“

  • ““I got the conch! […] I tell you, I got the conch!””

  • “he was the only boy on the island whose hair never seemed to grow”

  • ““you were outside. Outside the circle. You never really came in””

• Reliant on society

  • “Piggy glanced nervously into hell and cradled the conch“

  • ““One side’s broken””

  • ““An accident […] that’s what it was. An accident. […] Coming in the dark - he hadn’t no business crawling like that out of the dark””

• Parental figure

  • ““like a pack of kids!””

Ralph

• Responsible

  • ““we’ll have to have ‘Hands up’ like at school““

  • ““we need shelters”” (vs. ““we want meat““)

• Symbol of Civilisation

  • ““all you can talk about is pig, pig, pig!““

  • “eyes that proclaimed no devil“

• Antithesis to Jack

  • “eyes that proclaimed no devil” vs “hair was red”

  • ““we want meat”” vs. ““we need shelters””

Jack

• Antithesis/Foil to Ralph

  • CONTEXT: presented as the Id while Ralph is the Ego (Freud)

  • “two continents”

  • “on different sides of a high barrier”

  • ““No! How could we - kill - it?”” vs. ““That was murder””

  • “hair was red” vs. “eyes that proclaimed no devil”

  • ““I’m going to be chief.”” vs. voting for Ralph

• Dictator

  • “Jack, painted and garlanded, sat there like an idol“

  • “Power lay in the brown swell of his forearms; authority sat on his shoulder and chattered in his ear like an ape”

  • “Roger edged past the Chief, only just avoiding hitting him with his shoulder“

  • “marching approximately in step in two parallel lines”

  • ““Choir! Stand still!””

  • ““I ought to be chief,” said Jack with simple arrogance”

  • ““He came - disguised. He may come again even though we gave him the head of our kill to eat. So watch; and be careful”

  • CONTEXT: Hitler in WWII

• Descends into Savagery

  • “because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood”

  • “A little boy who wore the remains of an extraordinary black cap on his red hair and who carried the remains of a pair of spectacles at his waist, started forward, then changed his mind and stood still”

  • “he started up, then changed his mind and sat down again”

  • ““Bollocks to the rules!””

  • “the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness“

  • ““the conch doesn’t count on top of the mountain”“

Simon

• Christ-like figure

  • “he found for them the fruit they could not reach […], passed them back down to the endless, outstretched hands“

  • ““I just think you’ll get back alright””

  • ““That was murder””

    • Simon, like Jesus, acts as a sacrifice which leads to revelation

  • CONTEXT: Fable and Golding’s belief in God

  • “Man is a fallen being. He is gripped by original sin. His nature is sinful and his state perilous.” FABLE

  • ““my poor, misguided child””

• Observant

  • “his inner sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick”

• Innately Moral

  • ““What I mean is… maybe it’s only us.””

Roger

• Primary Antagonist

  • “Roger, with a sense of delirious abandonment, leaned all his weight on the lever“

  • “Roger edged past the Chief, only just avoiding hitting him with his shoulder“

  • “Roger, who carried death in his hands?”

  • “Some sense of power began to pulse in Roger’s body.”

  • “Roger advanced upon them as one wielding a nameless authority”

Naval Officer

The Lord of the Flies

• God Figure

  • ““