Lord of the Flies - characters

Lord of the Flies - characters

1. RALPH

   • First character we meet, elected chief - likeable + stereotypically popluar + attractive
     • 'The boy with fair hair
     • At the end he is the least changed boy (not savage) + only one to talk sensibly to naval officer
   • Protagonist
   • Represents order + civilization
     • Used to show patience, rational approach to problems + focusing one a long term goal - fire + shelters + rules
   • Easy to sympathise with - appears ordinary + reasonable
   • Has no hidden depths, unhealthy character traits, is gentle + can be trusted
     • 'there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil'
   • Always concerned about being rescued/making life nice
   • Only one to take any responsiblitly for Simon's death - leadership qualities

2. JACK

   • Antagonist
   • Represents chaos + savagery
     • Mask - can't see his face, de-humanising
       • 'The mask compelled them'
     • Chant about killing the pig
       • 'Kill the pig! Cut her throat! Spill her blood!'
     • Primative act of offering the sow's head to the beast
   • Very arrogant + believes he should be chief, runs off after Ralph is elected for the 2nd time
     • 'I ought to be chief said Jack with simple arrogance'
     • 'I can sing c-sharp'
   • His behaviour is affected by his strong desire to hunt + kill a pig
   • He's unconcerned about keeping a fire going, getting rescued or building shelters + lets the fire out
   • Steals Piggy's glasses

3. PIGGY

   • Represents law and order and civilzation
   • Very inteligent - recognises the conch + therefore is the reason that all the boys met and Ralph became leader
     • Conch represents civilization, order + law
   • Outsider - lower class, uses non-standard English, has asmar, wears glasses, fat
   • Never know his real name - de-humanising him, foreshadows death + boys decent to savagery?
   • Bullied by Jack, who is is imediately terrieifed of
   • His glasses represent civilization - used to light a fire for a signal which was due to rational thinking, but when stolen just used for more primative things such as warmth and finally for violence to smoke Ralph out the forest
     • Also represent intelligence as they are linked to Piggy
   • Only fear on the island should be the fear of the people
   • Killed by Roger - Ch. 11

4. SIMON

   • Faints on the beach - setting himself aside
   • 'communicates' with the 'Lord of the Flies' and looses conciousness
   • Discouvers the dead parachutist + is killed when coming to tell the boys the truth about the beast
     • Only one to discouver the truth about the beast
   • Seen as strange by the other boys, but can't describe him
     • 'batty'
     • 'queer'
     • 'funny'
     • 'cracked'
   • Unable to explain the notion of evil which manifests itself in the idea of the fear and the beast
     • Nothing to fear + there's life beyond the island
     • 'Simon became inarticulate in his effort to express mankind's essential illness'
     • 'The beast was harmless and horrible'
   • Has considerable strength of mind but his body is frail
   • Simon is a representation of fundamental innocence. He exists outside the system of masculinity and roughness that Ralph, Jack, and the others have grown up in, and is an image of non-conformity.
     • Christ-like

5. SAMNERIC

   • Twins - do everything together
     • 'breathed together'
   • Almost let the fire out when falling asleep on duty
   • See the parachutist + belive it is the beast
   • Loyal to Ralph until forced to join Jack's tribe
   • Tortured by Roger
   • Warn Ralph of Jack's intentions to hurt him
     • Want to stay on Ralph's side + retain civilized values but are made to do what Jack wants
   • Are a single until - descibe the encounter with the 'beast' in stereo - more frightening
   • The change in their name represents the decent for civilization to savagery - Sam and Eric, Sam 'n' Eric, Samneric
     • Lose their individuality

6. LITTLENS

   • Remain mostly anonymous
   • Gives the 'boy with the mulberry birthmark' a memerable characteristic - obvious that her is missing
   • Golding uses them to give clues about what is happening in the novel
   • Percival's response about his name dwindles - represents how the boys have been de-humanised and savage

7. ROGER + MAURICE

   • Part of Jack's choir + hunters
   • Destroy the littlun's sandcastles + kick sand in Percival's eye
     • Maurice feels guilty - retains a sense of sin
   • Roger throws stones at Henry
   • Roger first sees Jack's mask
   • ROGER
     • 'Sharpened a stick at both ends'
     • Acts 'with a sense of delirious abandonment' when killing Piggy
     • Administers torture + appeares to enjoy it
     • 'You don't know Roger. He's a terror'
       • Twins metion him first as a terror