Dualism in the novels of William Golding.

Abstract

In each of his novels, William Golding portrays three types of individuals: the type committed to the irrational world of spirit and imagination, the type committed to the rationalistic world of matter and mathematics, and the type who struggles with himself and his environment to attain an objective, dualistic view of the cosmos incorporation both worlds. The irrational world of spirit and imagination is represented in Lord of the Flies by Jack and his followers, in The Inheritors by the new people, in Pincher Martin by Christopher Martin when after his first death he returns to the cellar of his childhood nightmares, in Free Fall by Rowena Pringle and Father Watts-Watt, in The Spire by Dean Jocelin, and in The Pyramid by Cecilia Dawlish. The rationalistic world of matter and mathematics is represented in Lord of the Flies by Piggy and Ralph, in The Inheritors by Lok, in Pincher Martin by the Fallen Christopher, in Free fall by Nick Shales and Sammy Mountjoy, in The Spire by Roger Mason and Pangall, and in The Pyramid by Oliver and his father. Those who manage to attain transcendence beyond systems of thought include Simon of Lord of the Flies, the prelapsarian Neanderthals and the post-lapsarian Tuami of The Inheritors, Nathaniel of Pincher Martin, the redeemed Sammy Mountjoy of Free Fall, the dying Jocelin of The Spire, and the humbled Oliver of The Pyramid. Golding sincerely believes that a philosophy of life which does not account for both the rational and irrational elements in man is untenable and unrealistic, for both worlds are real and both must be accepted as real. With the ultimate acceptance of a dualistic view come profound epiphany and apocalypse and true insight - a visionary flash, perhaps - into the real nature of the universe and man.