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Вильям Голдинг (William Golding) «Повелитель мух»William Golding was born in 1911, and spent a relatively isolated childhood, during which he read widely and developed an early interest in words. Educated at Marlborough Grammar School, where his father taught, and at Brasenose College, Oxford, Golding graduated in 1935. After working in s settlement house and in small theatre companies, he became a schoolmaster at Bishop Wordsworths School, Salisbury. In 1940 when World War II broke out, he joined the Royal Navy. The end of the war found him commanding a rocket ship. After the war he resumed teaching at Bishop Wordsworths until 1961. Goldihgs first published novel was "Lord of Flies" (1954, film 1963 and 1990), the story of a group of schoolboys isolated on a coral island who revert to savagery. Its imaginative and brutal depiction of the rapid and inevitable dissolution of social mores aroused widespread interest and brought Golding real fame. The fame was no doubt in part due to his pessimistic vision of human nature as inherently violent, reflecting the mood of the post-war and post-Mitler years; the novel also epitomized mid-20th-century disillusionment with 19th-century optimism about human nature. The form of the novel was a normal fiction and it was also full of allegorical significance at the same time, it represented a change in the nature of the novel itself. "The Inheritors" (1955), set in the last days of Neanderthal man; "Pincher Martin" about a naval officer (1956); two other novels "Free Fall" (1959) and "The Spite" (1964) also demonstrated Goldings belief: "man produces evil as a bee produces honey". "Darkness Visible" (1979) was the story of a boy horribly burned in the London blitz during World War II. His later work "Rites of Passage" (1980) won the Booker McConnell Prize. In 1983 William Golding won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his parables of the human condition. The plot of "Lord of the Flies" is already known in liturature from such novels as "Robinson Crusoe" by Damiel Defoe and "The Coral Island" by R. M. Ballantyne. But this plot of "desert island myth" is used by Golding for his own different ideas. On the first pages of the novel we meet two English schoolboys Ralph and "Piggy". They are exploring a place where they found themselves together with other boys after the crash of their plane. When Ralph and Piggy find a shell Piggy offers to use it to call the other boys strolling the sea-shore to have meeting. Ralph stands on the platform and blows the conch. Indeed the sound of the shell attracts the other boys. Finally all boys get together. Ralph says they ought to have a chief to decide things, as there are no grown-ups, only boys from six till twelve years old and they have to look after themselves. One of the big boys- Jack declares that he ought to be a chief because he is a chapter chorister and a head boy. But some body offers to vote and after the voting Ralph becomes a chief. The first action of Ralph as a chief is to organize an expedition to find out where there are. The expedition shows that boys are on an uninhabited island. This evening on the second meeting Ralph takes first measures to ensure discipline and order. He offers to make a fire on top of the mountain if by chance a ship comes near the island it may notice the smoke and boys will be rescued. All boys accept the offer with great enthusiasm, they rust to the mountain, make a pile and light the fire by means of Piggys glasses. Jake and his group of boys volunteer to be hunters and to be responsible for keeping the fire going. First days on the is land children are full of optimism. They build shelters and have a lot of fun. But then boys begin to break their own rules. And most of "littleuns" are frightened of a beast, this fear is growing. Jack is busy with hunting. He paints his face in red, Black and white colours and dances before going to the hunting becomes more important to Jack than rescue. Once Jack and his followers go hunting and forget their duty to keep the fire going. Because of this fault boys miss a chance for rescue. After Jack kills his first pig he becomes more aggressive. He does not give up the idea about the power. He uses all means to consolidate his position. He users boys fear of a beast. He insists on going to look for the beast and kill it. Ralph has to agree. This expedition lasts till night. In the dark Ralph and Jack really notices a terrible figure. After the expedition Jack calls all boys to the meeting. He tries to throw down Ralph by voting but he fails. Then he leaves the camp, some "biguns" follows him. Jack creates his "tribe" with his own rules of savages. They hunt, dance their ritual dances of murder, punish disobedient boys. Jack uses "dirty tricks" to gain boys over: he invites them to the feast. After the feast during the ritual danse Jacks hunters murder Simon. But this murder does not stop Jack. He steals Piggys glasses to light the fire and when Ralph with his last supporters Piggy and twins come to Jacks camp, Jack forces twins to join his tribe and murders Piggy. Next morning the whole tribe of savages begins hunting for Ralph. During this hunting they sets fire in the wood. By happy chance this fire is noticed on a ship. And all boys are rescued. At the end Ralph is weeping bitter tears for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart. The main message of this novel-experiment can be expressed by thoughts of Simon that man is heroic and sick at the same time. Modern mans greatest misfortune, according to Golding, is that he does not understand himself and does not want to boys are understand the dark sides of his nature. Living for the most part in a comprehensible, rationally-explicable material world, man has drawn away from everything irrational, intuitive and "dark", everything that is not scientifically- based. However, these dark instincts emerge in certain situations and lead to social cataclysms. The primary task of Goldings moral lessons is not to affirm his theses but to challenge cliched patters of thinking in readers mind. He wants to alarm the reader, to make him think and re- examine his set ideas on the role of spiritual values in life; and to make people understand their own humanity. Major characters of "Lord of the Flies" are a well-chosen ensemble. According to the genre of allegory each of them represents a given position in the struggle of two worlds: the world of barbarity and irresponsibility as opposed to the world of common sense and civilization: "which is better-to live in harmony, according to the law, or to hunt and kill?" Jack is the most ominous figure in the novel. The author often compares him with an animal, best. Even the first appearance of party of boys party of boys is threatening and reminding of Nazis: "The creature was a party of boys, marching in step in two parallel lines and dressed in strangely eccentric clothing. Their bodies were hidden by black cloaks, each boy wore a square black cap with a silver badge in it. The boy who controlled them was dressed in the same way though his cap badge was golden. He was tall, thin, and bony: and his hair was red beneath the black cap. His face was crumpled and freckled, and ugly without silliness. Out of his face stared two light blue eyes, frustrated now, and turning, or ready to turn to anger". From the first minutes Jack, tries to take all power on the island in his hands. But even after his defeat in the voting, he does not cease striving for his aim. His annoyance is gradually growing into the rage. Gradually Jack is turning from a civilized English schoolboy in a savage rejecting all principles of human moral. In the first chapter of the novel we see that Jack can not kill a pig though he has a knife, because he can not overstep the line of murder, he can not descent his knife into lining flesh. But he is looking for some ways out for his "dark" desires. And by my opinion the crucial moment of Jacks transformation is when he paints his face, this mask has not only function of camouflage "This mask is a thing of its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self- consciousness". Now he begins to dance and his laughter becomes a blood- thirsty snarling. Having killed his first pig he feels himself free of all moral limits. Now he can use all means to achieve his aim. He can make a compromise or apologize, he can strike somebody or maybe even kill if it gives him more power. Making the best use of boys fears, appealing to the darkest sides of their souls, liberating them from feeling of duty and responsibility, Jack seizes the power on the island. Just absence of moral limits let him win Ralph. Though Ralph, in terms of the story-line, is the major opponent of the savages, while on the philosophical level Piggy and Simon and together in the struggle between civilization and barbarism, but in terms of the methods of cognition of evil, they are antagonistic to each other. Clumsy and short-sighted fat boy Piggy who has asthma the author treats with unfailing hostility, as he does science in general. Piggys misfortune is that rationalism does not enable him to recognize the complexity of life. For him, mans dark, irrational side does not exist, and his ability to think logically is developed at the expense of intuition. That is why seeing the external evil, he is not able to find its origin. And lack of understanding its deep connection with the mankind, Piggy can not make the best use of his only accessible weapon-mind. But Piggy plays his very important role in the novel. Only thank to his advice Ralph can make very important decisions. This is Piggy who advises to the shell to gather all boys; this is Piggy who advises to replace the fire on the beach. This is Piggy who makes the most important speech, the last call to the common sense: "Which is better- to be a pack of painted niggers like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph is? Which is better-to have rules and agree, or to hunt and to kill? Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?" Goldings favourite, Simon ("a skinny, vivid little boy, which a glance coming up from under a hut of straight hair that hung down, black and coarse") truly understands the nature of evil, and the epistemological problems in "Lord of the Flies" are basically connected with this character. Unlike Piggy, he attains understanding intuitively, he feels evil to be a deep-rood illness affecting mankind and himself. This knowledge alone, according to Golding, is insufficient. Moral and intellectual courage, the ability to look into ones own nature without fear-this is one of the most difficult-to-acquire, but precious abilities in his world. No less valuable and important is the difficult path from ignorance to knowledge, the path which Ralph travels in this novel. Ralph is the central character and many of the events, reactions and descriptions are seen through his eges. Ralph is an ordinary sensible boy. "He was old enough, twelve years and a few months, to have lost the prominent tummy of childhood; and not yet old enough for adolescence to have made him awkward. You could see now that he might make a boxer, as far as width and heaviness of shoulders went, but there was a mildness about his mouth and eyes that proclaimed no devil". Circumstances do him a chief. Ralph is a natural leader but not as strong as Jack. Ralph represents the boy of character who tries to face in an adult way a situation, which is beyond him. He has integrity, compassion, courage and authority and a strong awareness of values of the civilization the boys have left. But he is not a politician, he always needs help of Piggy and Simon because he has not the necessary turn of mind: "By now, Ralph had no self-consciousness in public thinking but would treat the days decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be e very good chess player". That is why he can retain the power in his hands. Besides, first he, like the most of other boys, does not understand himself, the human nature. But he battles for what is good and right against what is wrong and evil. By the end of book Ralph begins to find understanding and he is crying "for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy". Ralph is the only boy who is changing during the story, he becomes adult, going the difficult path from ignorance to knowledge. This path is always filled with torment, it leads to truth through guilt (in this novel this arises from participation in Simons murder), through recognition of this guilt and, finally, through suffering as the only possible path of human development. The novel "Lord of the Flies" is written by William Golding according to the premeditated, carefully planned scheme of the idea content. Materializing in the word, this scheme determines placing of characters, choice of language means and etc. - the whole artistic structure of the text. Every detail is selected by the author very prudently. Golding sometimes gives a symbolic meaning to some objects, for example, the shell is symbol of democracy and order, or the fire is a symbol of rescue. To achieve desirable effect Golding skillfully mixes styles. In "Lord of the Flies" Golding looks after that the reader infatuated with the development of philosophical allegorical story-line would not forget that the major characters are children. In the text we often meet "childish" forms of words, for example "beastie, snakething" or some typical for certain age or popular in certain period words: "wacco, wizard, smashing, barmy, balty, crackets". At the same time the philosophical message of "Lord of Flies" makes the author insert his "adult" commentary: "However Simon thought of the beast, there rose before his inward sight the picture of a human at once heroic and sick". From time to time speeches and thoughts of characters looks more "adult" as you can expect. As Piggy, who usually speaks in colloquial language, is able to the following cue: "I am scared of him and that is why I know him. If you are scared of someone you hate him, but you can not stop thinking of him!" As for colloquial and for low colloquial forms, some typical breach are met in the text: in pronunciation: sright = thats right; gimme = give me; dunno = do not know; kew = thank you. stead = instead; cos = because. in grammar: double negotion: nobody dont know; coincidence of verbs forms - plural and singular: arent I having?; we was coming; different personal forms: your dad dont know; using personal pronouns instead of possessive: pronouns or definite article: them fruit; using forms of personal pronoun in the Objective Case instead of possessive forms: me breath = my breath; me leg = my leg; using "what" instead of "who" or "that": the only boy what had asthma. Goldings books are sombre, but not entirely pessimistic. He has obviously limited himself by examining the shadowy sides of the human personality, believing that the major question is why man does evil, not why he does good. His novels are warnings based on hyperbole and the grotesque. Acknowledging mans "imperfections", Golding writers about him so as to understand and heal him. 1 1 Работа на этой странице представлена для Вашего ознакомления в текстовом (сокращенном) виде. Для того, чтобы получить полностью оформленную работу в формате Word, со всеми сносками, таблицами, рисунками, графиками, приложениями и т.д., достаточно просто её СКАЧАТЬ.  |
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