Quotes from the Spire
CHARACTERS
Jocelin
"He shot an arrow of love" (after the chancellor) p8
Agape love and shows patronising attitude
"He thinks he's a saint" "proud" "ignorant" p13
This is two dean's talking about him that he doesn't realise this emphasises his characteristics of pride and ignorance
"It is my guardian angel" "Lord; I thank thee that though has kept me humble" p22
This demonstrates his delusion and pride as he thinks he is humble but contradictory to this he is clearly not humble as he assumes that God has sent him an angel
"Did you see-see anything behind me there as I knelt?" p25
Shows his huge arrogance as the Catholic church of the time disencouraged visions but he is prepared to go against his superiors to try and prove that he is better than others
(Jocelin claims that he is "not half as beaky" p23
This shows his vanity
"I believe in one God- father in God Jocelin" p27
Golding juxtaposing the letter and the creed creates an antiphonal. It may suggest that Jocelin is his own God thereby showing that Jocelin is not a true Christian and that the Spire is being built because he wants it to be built
(Jocelin) "Made a defensive sign at the bottom of the pit" p 79
This shows Jocelin's superstition which goes against his Christian faith and his initial impractical help in the construction of the Spire
(Jocelin describes the pit as) "Some form of life, that which ought not to be seen" p79 and that "two hands bore a head of Dean Jocelin and hurled it into the pit" p81
This symbolism is an allusion to Jocelin's unconscious and the emerging Spire comes to represent Jocelin's sexual frustration, in the form of a phallic symbol emerging from his unconscious
"As for the whole building itself, the bible in stone, it sank from glorification to homiletics" p51
As jocelin begins to realise that the Spire is being built due to adultery his vision diminishes from glory to normality
"She will keep him here"p64
This is emphasised as there is a break in the paragraph for this line and it is simplistic compared to previous lengthy and rambling lines. It is important as Jocelin goes against his faith and abandons the women he loves to hell for the sake of the spire
"The renewing of life of the world was a filthy thing a rising tide of muck"p 58
Jocelin's attitude to sex is abnormal as, as a priest he should be encouraging children
(Jocelin) "Turned his head from, side to side, the more so, because he was locked in his head with only a few things"
This shows that Joclelin is awakening to his unconscious
(Sleep has been a) "Ground for repairs rather than recovery"
Shows his irreparable mental and emotional imbalance begin to feel pity as we know what we will now see is his inevitable decline
"I never came up against beldane"p137
He knows nothing about women
"This have I done for my true love" p137
Shows he did love Goody
"I'm not very intelligent
Change from being proud
"My faith... what faith"p190
Shows Jocelin realising that he was never a real Christian
"You were all over my knees like a dog"p200
Hints that Jocelin is homosexual
"I'm a building, with a vast cellarage where the rats live"p210
Shows Jocelin's growing awareness of his repressed emotions
"It's simpler to believe in miracles"
Shows his initial faith and his regard for facts and evidence as optional extras
"Exhilarated like a child running through lowers" p69
Shows his childlike qualities
"The devil was allowed to assail him in a particularly loathsome way" p76
Demonstrates his sexual repression
"Now I've come in pain and in shame, to ask you to forgive me"p211
Demonstrates that he wants to repent
"have mercy, have mercy...have mercy"p136
Shows he has a consciousness emphasises through tricolon
Entered) some new kind of Life"p217
Indicates his change
"The services of the church came to an end"
Guilty of absenteeism
"He ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
"Exhilarated like a child running through lowers" p69
Shows his childlike qualities
"The devil was allowed to assail him in a particularly loathsome way" p76
Demonstrates his sexual repression
"Now I've come in pain and in shame, to ask you to forgive me"p211
Demonstrates that he wants to repent
"have mercy, have mercy...have mercy"p136
Shows he has a consciousness emphasises through tricolon
Entered) some new kind of Life"p217
Indicates his change
"The services of the church came to an end"
Guilty of absenteeism
"He heard Ivo and his friends urging on the hounds"
To emphasise this abuse and the hunting metaphor which Golding believes is symbolistic of humanity the word hunting is replaced by euphemisms
Roger Mason
"The master builder inspected the rod slowly from one thumb to another"
Shows Roger is careful and deliberate
"Swarthy face" "thick neck"
He is masculine in contrast to Jocelin
"You priests pick and chose"p37
Shows his scepticism about faith
"Evolved a method of dealing with Rachel"
Shows the lack of a relationship between Roger and Rachel
"Few people approached him because he had become unpopular with his own men"
Shows the effect that Goody has had on him
"We guess and we go on building"
Shows the estimation involved and the technical difficulties he faces
"They kept together but no longer revolved around each other"
Shows the breakdown of Roger and Rachel's relationship
"Iron collar around Roger Mason's neck and could follow the slack chain back from her right hand"
Metaphor emphasises Rachel's ownership of Roger
"The master builder's smile was as ambiguous as the Sacrists had been" p41
Shows that Roger thinks that he is above Jocelin initially due to him not paying deference to his boss
"The master builder bawled at him. What's it to me? Or you? You won didn't you?"p109
The rhetorical questions emphasises Roger's sense of despair. It made be said that in a nihilistic sense he has realised the futility of his situation
"Roger Mason climbed like a bear" p 87
Bear symbolises an awakening of the unconscious
"They were alike in appearance; more like brother and sister than man and wife, dark, sturdy, red lipped" p43
"Light from the metal sheet"
Shows the difference with modern techniques where there would be electricity
Rachel Mason
"Talking and nodding, body shaken with vehemence" p42
Presented as indecently energetic-due to the time-period where women were viewed as objects it is obvious she is very self-confident
"It wasn't that she was barren...but she had to laugh"
Reveals Rachel's impotence and that Roger and Rachel's relationship is platonic
"Call her a wife? She's his keeper?
Jehan believes that this is the nature of Roger and Rachel's relationship this is ironic as it becomes true
"I remember when Roger's old master said... a spire goes down as far as it goes up" p43
Shows that she is intelligent
"The black hair fallen in snakes" p219
Goes against Paul's letters in the Epistles as she does not cover her hair with a wimple shows she is not very Christian.
"Hands began to care for him gently" p216
Shows her capacity for forgiveness
"Painted face" p110
Shows she does care for Roger
"Poor soul, sweet soul such a dear person"p110
Ironic and shows Rachel has great empathy
"There was a wisp of red hair caught in her fingers that flipped and flinked"
Shows the extent of Rachel's choleric character
Goody Pangall
"She is entirely women" p11
Shows she is a conventional women
"She was in my net" c11
Biblical reference means she was in my control
"The open terror in her face"
When she becomes attracted to Roger
"Trapped animal, a roedeer, perhaps, past the time of kicking in the snare and become nothing by helpless misery"
Animal imagery emphasises Goody's patheticness
"Perhaps one day I shall know how wicked she was"
Suggests Goody was involved in pangall's murder
"Not you too!" p100
Emphasises how little respect she has for the dean
Pangall
"One day they will kill me"
Prophetic builds sympathy
"Twig lying across his shoe, with a rotting berry that clung obscenely to the leather p95
Jocelin knows that pangall is dead but refuses to consciously accept it
"Poor Pangall, crouched beneath the crossways, with a sliver of mistletoe between his ribs?"p212
Alliteration emphasises pity
Father Adam
"One forgets you are there so easily... I shall call you Father Anonymous"
That Father Adam ignores this comment shows his respect for the church hierarchy
They have been called dangerous and incomprehensible"
Misogynistic faithful to church teachings
Father Anselm
"A lamentable lack of faith, my Lord" p33
Ironic statement
"You were all over my knees like a dog" p 200
Shows cold unsympathetic side
"The same sort as you, if you like. Minimal" p202
Cynical
"I have said what I have said"
Arrogant echoes Pontius pilot foreshadows his blunt truths to Jocelin
"Why shouldn't he see him as he is?"
Question emphasises Anslem's cunning nature
Lady Alison
(Hopes her maker will "vouchsafe his unworthy handmaid many more years of living death to repent in"
Shows her realistic attitude in contrast to Joclein's disillusioned one
(When she cries her voice still sounds) light and amused"
Shows she can keep up appearances in contrast to Jocelin
"It was half generosity. She was so,so pious, so dreary" p184
Tricolon emphasises that Jocelin was promoted partly due to a motivation of revenge something which is very unchristianly
"You must believe, Jocelin! P186
Emphasises her generosity
Visitor
"The questions drove him back in his chair"
Emphasises the visitor's cunning
Workmen
"Animal bodies"p90
Reduces humanity
"Murderers, cutthroats, rowdies....or worse" p167
What the workmen are
"They were bold men!"p168
Jocelin's deluded belief
THEMES
Faith vs Reason
"Who holds it up, Roger? I? The nail? Does she, or do you? P212
Shows faith has deserted Jocelin
Faith or no faith, Father, we've come to the end. P 84
Roger is the rationalist
"Help (Jocelin) into heaven" p222
Is Adam's faith
"Made a defensive sign at the bottom of the pit"
Shows Jocelin's irrationality at making a suppositious sign instead of helping
"There comes a point when a visions no more than a child playing lets pretend" p 85
Shows Roger trying to explain the spire won't be as good as Jocelin had hoped for
Sacrifice
"I didn't know how much you would cost up there, the four hundred feet of you. I thought you would cost no more that money. But still cost what you like."
Shows how much Jocelin is prepared to sacrifice
"There was a white belly jerking and screaming under them, and there was blood over the money"
Shows that Jocelin has sacrificed Goody's innocence symbolised by her white belly and her child for the spire as the money symbolises his influence and has blood over it
"Made a sacrifice with careful hands"
Deliberate act
"Poor Pangall crouched beneath the crossways, with a sliver of mistletoe between his ribs" p 212
Obvious sacrifice by the workmen to the spire
"She will keep him here"p64
Goody, roger and Rachel are sacrificed
"I see know it'll destroy us both"p88
Self-destruction
Delusion and Disillusion
Nevertheless, they must be strong enough"p41
Shows how delusional Jocelin is that he can convince himself that the pillars are strong enough
"Then his angel put away the two wings from the cloven hoof and struck him from arse to the head with a whitehot flail" p188
Disillusion for Jocelin emphasised by crude language
Spiritual Pride and Humility
Human will vs God's will
"You'll see how I shall thrust you upward by my will. It's God's will in this business"p 40
Shows his confusion about the difference of the two
"In this dark and wet, it took even Jocelin all his will, to remember that something important was being done"p54
"I am about my father's business" p67
Believes he is working for god echoes Jesus
"Now my will has to support a whole world up there"p96
This is god's job interesting that he believes the world is above him shows that he is deluding himself as god should be above the world
Imagine it. I thought I was doing a great work; and all I was doing was bringing ruin and breeding hate" p209
Jocelin has become deluded about the spire
"You see it may be what we were meant to do, the two of us" p212
There are no certainties it may be god's will it may be humans will the last line by Jocelin reflects this confusion
Sexuality
Fears the spire "warping and branching and sprouting"p95
Fears the rooting of sexuality within the cathedral
"A tangle of hair, blazing among the stars; and the great club of his spire lifted towards it" p221
Jocelin's true desire and the subconscious reason for building a spire
"There is a sense that your body would -forgive me-defile it" p183
Bans anything sexual from the cathedral
Role of women
Pagan world vs Christianity
TROPES
Arrow
"He shot an arrow of love"
Agape love false
"An arrow shot once"
Means love shot one
Spire
"Cradling" the spire "as a mother might examine her baby"
"A man lying on his back" p8
Phallic connotation
"All day and half the night, the hammers rang there like peal of untuned bells"p123
Ironic as it is a parallel of what should be happening- bells should be ringing to summon people to church services
"So that now there was a kind of necessary marriage; Jocelin, and the Spire"
Metaphorical significance
"This is nothing like my model, he thought-nothing like my vision; but what can we do"
He has become disillusioned
"Fall when you like my old cock"
Spire is a phallic symbol
"It cried, wangle-angle-bangle-clang!"
Onomatopoeia emphasises the imperfectness of the spire
"All day and half the night, the hammers rang there like a peal of untuned bells"
Not fulfilling their purpose ironic as supposed to be calling people to church
Plant/ Apple Tree
"He knew that the tower was swaying under him like a tall tree"
God's influence link to Garden of Eden and knowledge suggests that the spire was Jocelin's will as God has not exhibited it from nature which has become detrimental to its stability and that Jocelin is aware of this
(Angels are) "Wittering the sweet scent"
Synaethesia
"The same appalled delight as a small boy feels when first he climbs to high in a forbidden tree" p101
Allusion to Garden of Eden shows that jocelin is going against nature/god
"A cloud of angles flashing in the sunlight...pink and gold and white"p204
They are by the tree there colours contrast with the darkness of the cathedral
"It's like the appletree! p233
Birds/ Kingfisher
Nail
"I drove the Nail. You might have fallen for want of it"
Shows the importance the nail takes on in his mind
"For want of a nail...the kingdom was lost"
Echoes the words of the visitor emphasises the unimportance of the nail by not putting the capital on.
Net
"His net... (It's) God's folly"
Shows his delusion
"The net may break"
Goody and Roger's relationship may end or be found out
"Build quickly-quickly! Before you consent to the major evil and the net never break"p122
Open to interpretation as they have already consummated their relationship it could allude to divorce
"She was in my net"
Biblical allusion means she was in my will
Mistletoe
"A wet star"
Falls on Joclein's shoe link to mistletoe
"There was a twig lying across his shoe, with a rotting berry
"Poor Pangall, crouched beneath the crossways with a sliver of mistletoe between his ribs"
Alliteration emphasises his empathy for pangall and his realisation that Pangall was sacrificed by the builders as part of a pagan sacrifice
Tent
"The invisible tent was shut around them"
Beginning of Goody's and Roger's affair
Ark
"My stone ship"
Irony suggests it's indestructible
"There is no good thing in all this circle but the great house, the ark, the refuge, a ship to contain all these people and now fitted with a mast"
Jocelin views himself as the leader of goodness in a bad world
"As the whole building itself, the bible in stone, it sank from glory to homilectics"
Shows the ark sinking under normality and adultery
Rope
"It was Goody, half turned ,unblinking; feeling the ropes pull, shaking her head, Goody terrified and athirst, Goody and Roger "
Tricolon emphasises Goody and her conscious and Jocelin's is emphasised through the allusion to the rope which is eluded to as conscious in Isaiah and Mark
"Like a dead snake"
On Pangall's grave shows Jocelin's conscious for Pangall's death
"Fallen in snakes"
Rachel's hair is a symbol of consciences he realises he has destroyed her life by rendering Roger a suicidal alcoholic
Pit
Jocelin "made a defensive sign at the bottom of the pit"
Shows that pagan influence still widespread from Jocelin's reaction
"Two hands bore a head of Dean Jocelin and hurled it into the pit" in which is "some form of life, that which ought not to be seen"
Symbolism that the pit has a clear connection with Jocelin's unconscious
"The darkness under the earth, turning, seething, coming to the boil"
Shows that Jocelin's unconscious will become conscious