I am comparing and contrasting Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding in 1954 and set on a Pacific island sometime in the future with Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,

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I am comparing and contrasting Lord of the Flies, written by William Golding in 1954 and set on a Pacific island sometime in the future with Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, written by R.L. Stevenson in 1886 and set in Victorian London. Evil is personified in there books, but in different ways, as the authors’ philosophies are different.

Both authors were influenced by books they had read and by their surroundings. There were two sides to Victorian London – the squalor of the old city, with the poverty and disease of the lower classes as well as the prosperous middle-class town. The men who lived in this ‘new’ town would have had to obey strict codes of morality, for example, to go to church on Sunday and not to drink to excess. Stevenson lived in the new part of Edinburgh and instead of doing what was expected of him, as a young, middle-class man, he sometimes went into the old town. His made Stevenson think of himself as a dual creature, just like Jekyll before he took the potion. He was also affected by the terrible crimes committed in his area, e.g. by Deacon Brodie, who was a craftsman by day and criminal by night, and also by the Penny Dreadfalls – short stories about the supernatural evils. His literary influences include detective stories, since Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde seems to be set out rather like one, as well as Gothic novels, such as Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and perhaps even Darwin’s Origin of the Species, because Darwin thought man was a beast, quite literally, and Hyde is described as “ape-like” and “troglodytic”. On the other hand, Golding’s literary influences were adventure stories, particularly The Coral Island, a book by R.M. Ballantyne. This and other adventure stories show evil as something that be conquered, but the experience of war made Golding think otherwise. At the time of writing, people were still coming to terms with the atrocities of Nazi Germany and what had been done in the concentration camps. Golding wanted to show that man is innately evil, because otherwise, people would not have committed the crimes they did willingly.

Golding uses two characters to portray evil, Jack and Roger. Jack symbolises lust for power more than anything, it is his primary want, whereas Roger grows to symbolise pure evil, as he deliberately kills Piggy. In the descriptions of both of these characters, there are similarities to Hyde. Jack is “ugly without silliness” – this is like Hyde “giving an impressing on deformity without any nameable malformation”, they both seem to be ugly, yet the specific reason for which they are described so is not given, thus it seems that ugliness is part of their nature. The physical similarity to Roger is not great, it is only that both are small, Roger being describes as “slight” and Jekyll describes his alter ego as “younger, lighter.. I had lost in stature.”

Hyde himself is described using metaphors and similes, as a “Juggernaut,” being “ape-like” and “dwarfish”. He is also associated with evil in these descriptions. “Satan’s signature” seemed to be upon his face, and he was described as “particularly wicked-looking.” Hyde speaks little, like Roger (who does not voice his thoughts at assemblies, even thought the most inarticulate, like Simon and Percival Wemys Madison attempt to), but when he does speak, he does not restrain himself, in the same way as Jack does not when he is angry. When speaking to Utterson, he cries one sentence with a “flush of anger”, which shows that unlike all gentlemen, he shows how he feels.

Jack uses manipulation, for example in getting Samneric to hunt, instead of tending to the fire or to excite the littluns and make them want to hunt – after Jack shouts about how the beast can be defeated by hunting “the sound of mock hunting, hysterical laughter and read terror came from the beach”, he can do this just with words. This is not at all like Hyde, because Hyde does not enjoy manipulation. Indeed, the only time we know Hyde manipulates anyone on purpose is when he writes the letters to Poole and Lanyon, pretending to be Henry Jekyll to get his chemicals. He does this for self-preservation, whereas Jack and Roger both enjoy manipulation, through torture.

Jack uses a different method than Ralph when speaking. Ralph is logical in his words, he plans out his speeches but Jack talks impulsively. This might be one reason why he is more successful, he can oppose whatever Ralph says straight away.

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In Lord of the Flies the two evil characters develop the wickedness over time, but Hyde is evil from his “birth”. At the end of the first chapter, when Jack is about to stab the pig, he cannot “because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into flesh, because of the unbearable blood”. It is unbearable because Jack had never shed blood (I presume) before. The same goes for Roger. “There was a space round Henry, perhaps six yards in diameter, into which he dare not throw”. The use of the word “dare” suggests that he is tempted but ...

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