The Spire Love Triangle

Roger falls into Jocelin’s trap in the sense of him saying, ‘You took my craft, you took my army, you took everything’ could suggest Roger ‘taking away’ Roger’s sanity and belief into building the Spire, and the hope of the workmen, who he ‘brainwashed’ into believing that the construction of the spire will in fact be a success when Roger is aware of the disastrous consequences. There is no doubt of Roger’s skill of architecture, and Jocelin correctly predicts that he delights in finding solutions to new problems. Throughout the novel Roger’s practical sense of what is logically possible to do with materials is balanced against Jocelyn’s faith in miracles,, but Jocelin has little faith in Roger, so he uses him simply as a tool to carry out his own will and proceed with the completion of the spire. Roger is undeniably relieved when the earth moves and he feels he has a genuine excuse to leave work, but the trap of his love for Goody ends as he appeals, ‘Make me go’ and thus falls into the trap of Jocelin. As Jocelin becomes more and more attached and at home in the spire and the original balance between Roger’s practicality and Jocelin’s vision begins to shift, Roger removes himself from it. When Jocelin asks his forgiveness he responds for a moment with Christian love and acceptance, but his fear that Jocelin will make him reveal the truth of his dealings with Goody and Pangall drives him to throw Jocelin out of the room.

Jocelin’s insight of Roger and Goody’s mutual attraction makes life seem ‘a filthy thing’ and naturally conditions his view of Goody thereafter due to his disillusioned thoughts and perceptions of her. “It was as if the red hair, sprung so unexpectedly from the decent covering of the wimple, had wounded all that time before.” Jocelin’s changed view of Goody after the occurrence of the pit sums up her ambiguous position in the novel – perhaps almost invisible. This could be due to the way in which Golding poorly presents women in the novel. Rachel (Roger’s wife) is attentive to Roger, follows him around the country and worries about him being exhausted, yet he betrays her with Goody- even though she looks after him when he becomes an invalid. Goody is also abused by a male-dominated world, married off to the powerless Pangall, sexually exploited by Roger, shamed, and maybe frightened into dying in childbirth. Readers and Feminists can question how far Golding is portraying gender inequalities that were all more drawn in the fourteenth century, and how far he contributes to them himself, as we have a very limited view of Rachel and Goody. Goody is only seen though his deluded idealism and sexual repression, and is not allowed to speak for herself, emphasised by Goody’s faceless humming when she appears in Jocelin’s vision (Chapter 9, P 178). This acts as evidence that Jocelin was only ever interested in her as a sex object, and his love for her was physical rather than emotional.

        Golding illustrates the love triangle that comprises of Jocelin, Roger and Goody to somewhat perverse and complex which ultimately result in the unanticipated deaths of Goody and Jocelin.