There is also use of symbolism in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which is used in depth to create the enigmatic atmosphere necessary for such a mystery story. This occurs in the use of barred windows and strange doors, as well as the ubiquitous fog. Furthermore, the fog and use of the separate door and secret laboratory symbolise and show the dual personality, the hypocrisy and evil that is Hyde, within the respected person of Dr Jekyll. Golding makes use of a similar theme of a shrouded second identity in Lord of the Flies. Jack, when behind a mask was “liberated from shame and self-consciousness”, and it was a “thing on its own”, which means that he felt that he was free to do anything with the mask of paint, without fear or reprimand from his own conscience.
Both authors employ the use of particularly evil characters. The main such characters in Lord of the Flies are Jack and Roger. Jack is evil because, escaping from society’s conditioning behind a mask of paint, his primal instincts take over, and his lust for blood becomes very obsessive. This escalates into a lust for human blood that can only be described as evil. Nevertheless, Roger seems worse. Sam and Eric describe him as “a terror”. He likes to torture people, as we can tell from the screams on top of Castle Rock, and is sadistic, enjoying the “possibilities of irresponsible authority” when controlling a murderous rock, and the feeling “a sense of delirious abandonment” when it is set free. These two characters embody the nature that is within us and under the right circumstances can be released, even from the Head Boy of a God-fearing choir school, in Jack.
The key evil character in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is clearly Mr Hyde. He represents, in a way that is more clear-cut than Jack and Roger, the evil in man. He shows all the character and appearance traits that would have been considered bad or evil in Britain in the period, in that he dresses, speaks, and generally looks very untidy, with hair all over his body. In this way, and through the reactions of the other characters, such as Utterson describing him as “having Satan’s signature upon his face”, creates a suitable aura of ill-will and uneasiness around Hyde, which the reader can pick up, and helps the presentation of evil. Hyde’s actions are very animalistic and savage. This occurs in the most vivid and clear sense in his brutal attack on Sir Danvers Carew. Carew is “clubbed to the earth” in a moment of “ape-like fury” by Hyde, who then “trampled upon” him.
The killing of Simon in Lord of the Flies also makes use of animal imagery. There is the idea of the boys acting as “a single organism”, and “screamed, struck, bit tore”, with a “tearing of teeth and claws”. This shows how the beast entered the boys, after it was freed from the mountain by Simon, and they became the evil. The killing of Simon enforces an entirely different point from the attacks in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, namely crowd mentality. This is certainly a point that is crucial to looking at Golding’s view of evil, as it recurs repeatedly in the novel. Clearly, in most of the boys, good normally prevails over evil, because when they are in small groups, and without peer pressure, most appear to get along quite well. Therefore there needs to be a trigger to release the evil that Golding thinks is in each of the boys, and in this case it is the fear and “that bloody dance”. The beast takes control of the boys, in just the way that it takes over Jekyll, turning him into a raging Hyde.
The language in these sections forms only a part of the complex use of description and dialogue employed by both authors to set the scene, and tell the story. Golding uses complex descriptions in setting the scene, which are very graphic, and give the reader a vivid picture of what he saw. In contrast, the dialogue used by such public school educated boys is poor, especially in the case of Piggy. There is much use of slang and mild swearing, and the standard of the dialogue deteriorates with the rest of the story, ending almost monosyllabic. The boys are hindered while on the island by their poor vocabulary and inability to express ideas, and Golding uses it as a device to make sure only Simon knows what he is thinking, and he cannot express his prophetic ideas of evil and the beast. The deterioration of language serves to emphasise the downfall of society.
Lord of the Flies is intended for a reasonably well-educated audience because of the long paragraphing, and the depth of symbolism and allusions in the novel, with many complex images of good and evil represented by colours, snakes, certain people, the sow’s head, and so on. One example occurs when Simon comes down from the mountain just before his death and says “something about a man on a hill”, thus alluding to the death of Jesus Christ. Probably the most significant of these allusions occurs in the title itself. By using the phrase “Lord of the Flies”, he links the beast, represented by the sow’s head surrounded by flies, to Satan. In the Bible, one of the many references to Satan is to “Beelzebub”, meaning literally “Lord of the Flies”.
The language in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is very different. The sentences are very much longer than in Lord of the Flies, and a paragraph can easily take a whole page. The dialogue is also more significant than in Lord of the Flies, with a character’s dialogue representing always his character, with Jekyll and Hyde’s dialogue representing the two sides of nature. We can see that Hyde is intended to be disliked by the reader from his infrequent and very direct use of dialogue, such as “how do you know my name?” and “What will it be?”. This contrasts with Jekyll’s elaborate language, and attractive speech mannerisms, such as “put your heart at rest, Utterson”, and “we have touched upon this business for the last time”.
The structure of the novels is very different. Lord of the Flies is written entirely in third person narration from an omniscient author. The importance of this in the novel is that the story switches constantly from person to person, especially in the build-up of tension towards Simon’s death, and in this format, it is easy to follow. The format in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, on the other hand, is used to build up the tension and mystery around the story. Although there is a use of third person omniscient narration, the focus tends to be on one particular character, which allows an atmosphere of mystery as Stevenson divulges very little information, leaving a lot to be worked out by the reader. The letters at the end are another common form of Victorian writing. The many points of view and the letters authenticate the story, so that the reader believes it to be true. The use of gradual revelation, even after the climax of the story has been reached, means that tension and surprise is not lost right until the very end.
I think that the two authors’ ideas and views of evil are very similar, as is shown in the similarities between the characters, the evil incidents, and the symbols in the novel. Clearly, both believe that there is some kind of evil innately in human beings, and it takes a circumstance to bring it out to its most terrible. However, there is a subtle difference between the two representations. Lord of the Flies appears to concentrate more on the theme of a collective evil in human nature, with the Island being a microcosm of the world itself. Stevenson’s view is much more based on the evil and hypocrisy taking place in secret, within the individual, but within every individual. His view of the psychological duality of nature seems to be, that the repression enforced in society, and the pressure to not slip up, could cause the outbursts seen, and craved from Jekyll in the form of Hyde.
In summary, there is a very subtle difference in the author’s views of good and evil, and this is shown in their slightly different presentation. However, both novels do portray similar elements in their presentation of evil, including the character choices and descriptions, the incidents that take place, and their use of symbolism.
