From Civilization to Savagery: A Freudian Psychoanalytic Study of Power, Fear and Leadership in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

Abstract

A dark examination of the thin line between order and chaos, Lord of the Flies tells a story of fear, transformation, and a struggle for control and power that ultimately alters human nature. Reading the novel from a psychoanalytical perspective, this article explores the novel, using the theories of Sigmund Freud to reveal the psychological undercurrents which are operating below social order and moral discipline. This study deals with the impact of unconscious desire, aggressive impulses, fear and emotional insecurity that affect power and personal behavior within a story. This article adopts quantitative and interpretative method to discover the change of state of power in a novel where it becomes something psychological that is driven by fear and instinctive desire. It also reveals that the need of primitive instincts, which lie just below the surface of human morality, is still present in today's civilization. The analysis also emphasizes the role symbols, group psychology and emotional panic play in making violence and the loss of the social consciousness possible. In the end, the research claims that Golding's essay demonstrates that human beings are psychologically dualistic beings (both moralist and antisocial) and that keeping the human civilization in existence is not only required but also problematic