Drama Lord of the Flies Characters Analysis by William Golding
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Characters Analysis
Ralph is the athletic, charismatic protagonist of Lord of the Flies. Elected the leader of the boys at the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the primary representative of order, civilization, and productive leadership in the novel. While most of the other boys initially are concerned with playing, having fun, and avoiding work, Ralph sets about building huts and thinking of ways to maximize their chances of being rescued. For this reason, Ralph’s power and influence over the other boys are secure at the beginning of the novel. However, as the group gradually succumbs to savage instincts over the course of the novel, Ralph’s position declines precipitously while Jack’s rises. Eventually, most of the boys except Piggy leave Ralph’s group for Jack’s, and Ralph is left alone to be hunted by Jack’s tribe. Ralph’s commitment to civilization and morality is strong, and his main wish is to be rescued and returned to the society of adults. In a sense, this strength gives Ralph a moral victory at the end of the novel, when he casts the Lord of the Flies to the ground and takes up the stake it is impaled on to defend himself against Jack’s hunters.
In the earlier parts of the novel, Ralph is unable to understand why the other boys would give in to base instincts of bloodlust and barbarism. The sight of the hunters chanting and dancing is baffling and distasteful to him. As the novel progresses, however, Ralph, like Simon, comes to understand that savagery exists within all the boys. Ralph remains determined not to let this savagery overwhelm him, and only briefly does he consider joining Jack’s tribe in order to save himself. When Ralph hunts a boar for the first time, however, he experiences the exhilaration and thrill of bloodlust and violence. When he attends Jack’s feast, he is swept away by the frenzy, dances on the edge of the group, and participates in the killing of Simon. This firsthand knowledge of the evil that exists within him, as within all human beings, is tragic for Ralph, and it plunges him into listless despair for a time. But this knowledge also enables him to cast down the Lord of the Flies at the end of the novel. Ralph’s story ends semi-tragically: although he is rescued and returned to civilization, when he sees the naval officer, he weeps with the burden of his new knowledge about the human capacity for evil.
The strong-willed, egomaniacal Jack is the novel’s primary representative of the instinct of savagery, violence, and the desire for power—in short, the antithesis of Ralph. From the beginning of the novel, Jack desires power above all other things. He is furious when he loses the election to Ralph and continually pushes the boundaries of his subordinate role in the group. Early on, Jack retains the sense of moral propriety and behavior that society instilled in him—in fact, in school, he was the leader of the choirboys. The first time he encounters a pig, he is unable to kill it. But Jack soon becomes obsessed with hunting and devotes himself to the task, painting his face like a barbarian and giving himself over to bloodlust. The more savage Jack becomes, the more he is able to control the rest of the group. Indeed, apart from Ralph, Simon, and Piggy, the group largely follows Jack in casting off moral restraint and embracing violence and savagery. Jack’s love of authority and violence are intimately connected, as both enable him to feel powerful and exalted. By the end of the novel, Jack has learned to use the boys’ fear of the beast to control their behavior—a reminder of how religion and superstition can be manipulated as instruments of power.
Whereas Ralph and Jack stand at opposite ends of the spectrum between civilization and savagery, Simon stands on an entirely different plane from all the other boys. Simon embodies a kind of innate, spiritual human goodness that is deeply connected with nature and, in its own way, as primal as Jack’s evil. The other boys abandon moral behavior as soon as civilization is no longer there to impose it upon them. They are not innately moral; rather, the adult world—the threat of punishment for misdeeds—has conditioned them to act morally. To an extent, even the seemingly civilized Ralph and Piggy are products of social conditioning, as we see when they participate in the hunt-dance.
In Golding’s view, the human impulse toward civilization is not as deeply rooted as the human impulse toward savagery. Unlike all the other boys on the island, Simon acts morally not out of guilt or shame but because he believes in the inherent value of morality. He behaves kindly toward the younger children, and he is the first to realize the problem posed by the beast and the Lord of the Flies—that is, that the monster on the island is not a real, physical beast but rather a savagery that lurks within each human being. The sow’s head on the stake symbolizes this idea, as we see in Simon’s vision of the head speaking to him. Ultimately, this idea of the inherent evil within each human being stands as the moral conclusion and central problem of the novel. Against this idea of evil, Simon represents a contrary idea of essential human goodness. However, his brutal murder at the hands of the other boys indicates the scarcity of that good amid an overwhelming abundance of evil.
Piggy
Piggy is the first boy Ralph encounters on the island after the crash and remains the most true and loyal friend throughout Lord of the Flies. An overweight, intellectual, and talkative boy, Piggy is the brains behind many of Ralph’s successful ideas and innovations, such as using the conch to call meetings and building shelters for the group. Piggy represents the scientific and rational side of humanity, supporting Ralph’s signal fires and helping to problem solve on the island. However, Piggy’s asthma, weight, and poor eyesight make him physically inferior to the others, making him vulnerable to scorn and ostracism. Piggy is also the only boy who worries about the rules of English civilization, namely what the grownups will think when they find the savage boys. Piggy believes in rules, timeliness, and order, and as the island descends into brutal chaos, Piggy’s position comes under threat of intense violence.
Piggy’s independence and thoughtfulness prevent him from being fully absorbed by the group, so he is not as susceptible to the mob mentality that overtakes many of the other boys. However, like Ralph, Piggy cannot avoid the temptations of savagery on the island. The morning after the frenzied dance, Piggy and Ralph both admit to taking some part (although they remain vague) in the attack and murder of Simon. While Piggy tries to convince himself that Simon’s murder was an accident, his participation suggests that his willingness to be accepted by the group led him to betray his own morals and better judgment. Piggy’s death suggests that intellectualism is vulnerable to brutality. While Simon’s death can be viewed as an accident or an escalation of mob mentality, Piggy’s murder is the most intentional and inevitable on the island, and the moment when the group’s last tie to civilization and humanity is severed.
Introduced as a quiet and intense older boy, Roger eventually becomes a sadistic and brutal terrorist over the course of Lord of the Flies. Midway through the book, Roger’s cruelty begins to surface in an episode where he terrorizes the littlun Henry by throwing rocks at him. Still beholden to the rules of society, Roger leaves a safe distance between the rocks and the child, but we see his moral code beginning to crack. As Jack gains power, Roger quickly understands that Jack’s brutality and willingness to commit violence will make him a powerful and effective leader. When he learns that Jack plans to torture Wilfred for no apparent reason, he thinks about “the possibilities of irresponsible authority,” rather than trying to help Wilfred or find out Jack’s motivation. Roger gives into the “delirious abandonment” of senseless violence when he releases the boulder that kills Piggy. He then descends upon the twins, threatening to torture them. The next day, the twins Samneric tell Ralph, “You don’t know Roger. He’s a terror.”
Sam and Eric are twin older boys on the island who are often referred to as one entity, Samneric, and who throughout most of Lord of the Flies, remain loyal supporters of Ralph. Sam and Eric are easily excited, regularly finish one another’s sentences, and exist within their own small group of two. Like Ralph and Piggy, Sam and Eric participate in the death of Simon, but insist that they left the dance early, too ashamed to admit what really happened. After Jack leaves to start his own tribe, the twins are two of the few boys who remain with Ralph and Piggy to help maintain the signal fire and look after the littluns. They bravely go with Ralph and Piggy to get the glasses back from Castle Rock. But after Piggy’s death, they are coerced and manipulated into joining Jack’s tribe. Sam and Eric try to warn Ralph about Jack and Roger’s bloodlust, but they are physically dominated the next day and reveal Ralph’s hiding spot in the underbrush.
