Comparing Lord Of The Flies By Thomas More And William Golding

Thomas More and William Golding’s personal context constructs their belief of whether a perfect world is truly achievable, fabricating a symbolic setting which allegorically critiques their social and political world. I have come to conclude that over time, the idea of a perfect world has become increasingly unattainable, being influenced by our perception of human nature. More’s socio-political satire Utopia (1516) establishes a harmonious society with idealistic systems and rules. More utilises first person peripheral narrative voice to convey himself as a viewer of this ‘perfect world’, however, this separation from the audience may lead to a further separation of ‘utopia’. Paradoxically, Golding’s critical dystopian Lord of the Flies(1954)

Through the transparency of how our instinctual nature is presented in each novel, we change our attitude to the absurdity of perfectness.

Utopia and LOTF both introduce an idealistic island setting, and through this we establish the opinions that either an isolated environment is the best way to achieve subliminal perfection, or that the notion of perfection is so foreign that we will never achieve it. Utopia’s setting is deliberate; the quote “claims the country was not always surrounded by sea” positioning the audience to ponder why the peninsula was excavated as an island and if isolation is the key to an ideal, peaceful world. This action causes audiences to question how the novel is connected to More’s individualist society; perhaps Utopia is either too fragile to be connected with his world or is too difficult to achieve with the chaotic European politics of the time. This idea is mimicked by the peripheral narrative voice which creates cerebral distancing from both the island itself and its citizens. Similarly, the juxtaposition of nature in “a huge bay protected from the winds …. the straits into the

Golding's post-war context enabled him to see how easily the evil within us can taint our innocence and good morals. Through an extended metaphor, “the world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away” Golding allows us to feel the character's desperation, and that crucial connection exposes how perhaps we do need rules and authority to keep society in check. However, this limits our individuality and control, and again audiences realise that it seems no possible system can work without flaws, and therefore ‘perfect’ is out of reach. Previous novels had explored the corruption of morals through ‘savages’ present on the island, but Golding's uninhabited island reveals how our nature can come out regardless, furthered by the metaphor “maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us”, personifying the inherent evil within us. The omniscient voice guides readers through human thoughts and emotions, and the audience can conjure a “scene so completely that I could really feel the full panic and burning heat of a crisis taking place.” This pivotal element is what Utopia lacks; while the narrative voice creates the illusion that we are listening to an actual account, experiences from citizens of the island are lacking. This pushes audiences into a state of confusion as we are unable to fathom