Preview

Personality In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
554 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Personality In William Golding's Lord Of The Flies
Lord of the Flies is a novel that has several different personalities. William Golding's dark novel has plenty of experiences. The three main personalities are used on three British school boys. The three personalities are Id, Ego, and Superego; these personalities each go to these three boys. The boys are Jack, Ralph, and Piggy. Id represents a need, wants, and causes aggression. ("Id, ego and super-ego") The second type of personality is called Ego. This personality represents not knowing the difference between right and wrong, and it avoids pain. (McLeod) The last type of personality is called Superego. This type is a combination of Id, and Ego. The superego tries to convince the Ego to turn goals into realistic ones. (McLeod)
Id is the personality that has aggression, and hatred towards things, or people. Id is a personality which makes you want things, and to need things. ("Id, ego and super-ego") In the
…show more content…
Superego is a combination of Id, and Ego. Superego also is when you feel guilt and get emotional over a certain topic. (McLeod) Piggy is a great character to fit under this personality. One certain example is when Piggy wanted everything to be ran by the conch. Piggy wanted to keep calm but would get emotional talking about personal things that had happened to him. (Golding) The second example that deals with Piggy being Superego is when Piggy has certain speeches over time to describe the way he feels towards things. (Golding) These three personalities are in everyday life, and will not disappear. The novel Lord of the Flies easily represents these three personalities Freud had created. These boys showed these personalities and how we as humans can act while stranded on an island in the middle of a war. Id, Ego, and Superego are good personalities that all fit these three boys. William Golding easily fit these personalities in with these boys to show the different personalities that we all can

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Lord of the Flies, William Golding depicts morals and the boundaries of society in the form of characters. This essay will compare and contrast the differences between four pivotal characters: Ralph, Jack, Simon and Roger. The goodness and order in society is portrayed by Ralph and SImon. The darkness in human nature is explained through Roger and Jack.…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Two aspects of the Freudian Theory are the id—the state of mind that acts on instinct—and the superego—the state of mind that acts as one’s conscience. In Lord of the Flies, Roger can clearly represent the id, whereas Simon acts as the superego of the group. Acting on one’s superego can easily be associated with innocence and good, which is illustrated in the novel. In chapter one of Lord of the Flies, Ralph and Jack climb up the mountain with Simon. As they reach the top, the boys get a clear, beautiful view of the island. It had a “circular horizon of water” (Golding, pg.21), and was “roughly boat-shaped” (Golding, pg.21). The setting was described in a way that was similar to paradise; “the air was thick with butterflies” (Golding, pg.21),…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    PSY 101 Unit 4 Study Guide

    • 4862 Words
    • 18 Pages

    Superego- the component of personality that tells people what they should and should not do. This is what develops last and becomes our moral guide. Tells us what we should and should not do.…

    • 4862 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Golding's 'Lord of the Flies', a group of schoolboys find themselves on a deserted island alone after a plane crash. They attempt to form a society and elect a 'chief', however this fades and the boys begin to destroy the island and each other. Ralph, the main character and 'chief' of the society the boys initially form, is a character who drastically changes throughout the narrative.…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    n the Lord of The Flies, William Golding represents the characters' descent from civilization to savagery through symbolism. One of the ways it is represented is fear, and its evolution as its source ceases to be external factors such as nature and becomes people, suggesting all the boys have a potential for evil within them. Becoming more savage and letting go of their civilized morals, the boys oppress one another, resulting in many of them becoming submissive and scared.…

    • 1500 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Lord of the Flies William Golding uses allegories to illustrate the human psyche. Different characters are used to represent different parts of an individual 's mental structure: the impulses of the Id, the rationality of the Ego, and the moral understanding of the Superego. Golding carefully describes each character 's actions to coincide with each part of the psyche. Jack, Piggy, Simon, and Ralph are characters in the story that represent the psyche.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Of Golding’s characters, the ones from Lord of the Flies are some of the most well known. Throughout the novel each of the lead characters acts as one of the key facets that make humans human. Arguably the characters representing the most visible aspects of the human mind are Ralph and Jack because of their intensive struggle. Ralph and Jack represent the struggle between civilization and savagery – while on the psychological field they take the form of man’s ego and id (Ralph being the ego and Jack as the id). To spite Ralph more than any other reason, Jack says, “Who’ll join my tribe and have fun?” (Golding…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Id- part of the psyche we are born with. It operates on the pleasure principle. Ego- the part of the mind whose function it is to moderate the demands of the Id and prevent the superego being too harsh. It operates on the reality principle. Superego- it’s the component of personality composed of our internalized ideals that we have acquired from our parents and from society. The superego works to suppress the urges of the id and tries to make the ego behave morally, rather than realistically.…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Often in our lives other people affect us in both negative and positive ways. In the case of Lord of the Flies, the kids influence one another while on the island, in mostly negative ways. These influences cause for mental changes in the brain. Most of the time, mental changes affect physical changes. However, in some rare occasions it is the other way around. While on the island the boys go through numerous physical and mental changes. Although mental changes are somewhat more significant than physical changes, physical changes are still very much apparent and can sometimes cause for mental change.…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What lies in the mind of others can be very unknown and possibly even too unpleasant to experience. Perhaps psychologically, the human minds are all completely different, or maybe they aren’t. According to some brilliant researchers, they believe different things about the breakdown of the personalities of humans. It all is determined on your perspective, which they’re endless “what ifs” on the subject but no complete real answer. According to Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs, ( Myers and Briggs) there are 16 different types of personalities.…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beowulf And Grendel Essay

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Id is the personality component made up of unconscious energy that works to satisfy instant gratification of basic needs and drives. A person can be satisfied doing something for…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He remains in solidarity, rarely speaking and gaining trust of both Jack and Ralph, who fight for the position of a leader. Simon is never aroused into violence, and manages to remain the only boy who is truly, consistently good, partly because of his nature. He remains good because his human nature is not provoked into savagery; he is simply above all the others. As for Piggy, his intellect arouses in him, a want to be heard; to spread his new and innovative ideas, instead of concealing them like Simon. Piggy represents the rational side of society, which at times makes him cold and careless of everything, except for gaining acceptance. The two represent separate parts of the deteriorating morality amongst the other boys, Piggy and Simon possess the qualities that are disregarded in the tumult of survival; Piggy is rational and intellectual, while Simon is the purity and goodness in people.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The 3 are usually balanced but if the ego favours the ID a person can be self-centred, very immature and ignorant of others. If the ego favours the Superego a person would be very conformist, always following the rules and saying no.…

    • 3602 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel, Lord of the flies by William Golding characters have clashing personalities. To deal with this clash and to fit in with their fellow tribe members the assume a persona. Ralph puts on this mask to seem more violent and uncivilized, like all the other boys on the island except Piggy. It is proven at the end of the novel that this is just a persona and not a complete change in character when Ralph begins to weep at the thought of being rescued by a naval officer and going home at last.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Freud, “the superego…develops around the age of 3 – 5” (McLeod). Unfortunately, Aschenbach was sickly during this time of his life, which may have impeded on his development (Mann). This means that Aschenbach never learned to attribute societal morals to aspects in his life. In his efforts to achieve his desires, he did not realize he was doing anything wrong by essentially stalking a young boy. The superego’s role is to control the id, especially in cases where morality is questioned. If the superego fails to gain control of the id, “the conscience can punish the ego through causing feelings of guilt” (McLeod); in Aschenbach’s case, his conscience punished him with such guilt that he ate cholera-ridden berries (Mann). Another characteristic of the superego is the person has a high “ideal self” (McLeod). Originally, Aschenbach’s ideal self was exceptionally high. He looked down on those around him and considered himself to be their better. For example, the old man, of whom he said he was “embarrassed” simply because the man dressed younger than his age deemed fitting (Mann 5). Eventually, his id won out in that too as Aschenbach himself turned into that man in an attempt to appeal to…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays