Lord of the Flies by W.

Golding Psychoanalytic approach

Setting

A group of English boys deserted on an island Uncorrupted and Eveless Eden

Characters

Human condition archetypal pattern of human society different conflicting tendencies within the individual

FREUD

The Id: The part of the unconscious mind that works always to gratify its own impulse. The Super Ego: The part of the mind that seeks to control the impulsive behavior of the Id. The super-ego acts as the conscience, maintaining our sense of morality and the prohibition of taboos. The Ego: The conscious mind that mediates between the Id's demand for pleasure and the social pressures brought to bear by the superego.

Ralph: Superego

WILL: 'the mental power by which a person can direct his thoughts and actions or influence others' Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up? The need for adult behaviour

Ralph: Superego

A strange thing happened in his head. Something filtered there in front of his mind like a bats wing, obscuring an idea Strong awareness of the values of civilization

Jack:Id

Leader (choir)- dictator Drawn deeper and deeper into barbarism Thoughts hidden; excitement about the hunt Coded in the DNA? The desire to squeeze and hurt was overmastering(106) Underlying darkness in human beings

Piggy - Ego

Voice of adulthood The first thing we ought to have made was shelters on the beach How can you expect to be rescued if you dont put first things first and act proper. (44) Irrational society: his blindness disbelief in the supernatural With his death all sense, all reason is gone; the ultimate madness sets in

JUNG

the shadow = the dark side of the ego made up of all the evil that we are capable of able to eventually take over the human mind and transform it into something completely evil if enough potential dark energy is stored derives from our pre-human, animal past, when our concerns were limited to survival and reproduction, and when we werent self-conscious opposite component of the shadow = the persona (the public image that we carry on in public)

JUNG

when someone has negative ideas and immediately denies that they had them, then those ideas will develop into a complex a pattern of suppressed thoughts and feelings that cluster around a theme negative ideas cluster around the theme provided by the shadow - Jack and Roger Jack - the complex that is formed overpowers him in the end and turns him into something almost inhuman Simon - the purest personality / also encounters the shadow in the form of a hallucination

Cont.

the Beast - not an animal > the boys darker natures manifesting themselves boys are all at war with themselves in a losing battle face their own individual shadows, and are overcome by them

Play: temporary cessation from activities imposed by the adult world Rituals Reenactment of the killing- frenzy, cruelty Kill the pig. Cut her throat. Spill her blood.

Melanie Klein, Herbert Rosenfeld

Klein- fantasies of violence, terror and omnipotence

Rosenfeld - narcissistic omnipotent object relations-the person uses other people as things or containers, into which they project what is undesirable to themselves, or that which causes anxiety and pain. The person can then feel all powerful and free from disturbance, and can idealise themselves and their actions

Rosenfeld - Destructive narcissism

A gang The need for external enemy Jacks mask of omnipotence The group doesnt tolerate criticism => Relationship with Ralph and Piggy

Sunk deep in maternal bliss, the largest sow of the lot. She was black and pink; and the great bladder of her belly was fringed with a row of piglets that slept and burrowed and squeaked Boys-piglets; denying vulnerability members of the group- capable of doing things they could never do as individuals

age-inappropriate sexuality and aggression

wedded to her in lust, they were heavy and fulfilled

upon her, the hunters hurled themselves at her, Roger found a lodgment for his point and began to push, Right up her ass!, passionately out of the depths of their tormented private lives maternal fantasy and object-choice: Freudian concepts => mother sow Oedipus Complex Why not all the boys? - Identification with the father