Absolute Monarchy In Lord Of The Flies, By William Golding

In Lord of the Flies, Golding’s portrayal of Jack’s growing power on the island aligns with Thomas Hobbes’s assertion that humans naturally tend to act violently and contentiously, but Golding’s depiction of Jack as a leader also ridicules Hobbes’s idea of an absolute monarchy.
Hobbes claimed in the Leviathan that without an absolute monarchy to keep people in awe, humans will naturally be at war with one another due to greed, power and violence. He states that all humans who have lived for an equal amount of time will gain equal wisdom, but due to human nature, they instead view themselves as smarter and more capable than others. Thus, in the scope of society, one of the causes of contention is glory. Because every man glorifies himself, in

During an assembly once, Jack declares: “We don’t need the conch anymore...It’s time some people knew they’ve got to keep quiet and leave deciding things to the rest of us” (Golding 101, 102). In this section, Jack proclaims how most people accomplished nothing speaking to the audience and the decisions should be left to the leaders, an anti-democratic idea. Desirous for power, Jack believes himself to be among the most useful on the island, even though he is clearly selfish and incompetent, never accomplishing anything outside of hunting. Proposing the idea that somebody as corrupt as Jack may try to consolidate power as a leader, or even an absolute ruler, Golding challenges the very core of the idea of absolute monarchy. The full effect of Jack’s “leadership” is shown near the end, when he and his “tribe” have completely split off from Ralph’s group. During this time, one of the hunters said: “[Jack’s] going to beat Wilfred up….[Jack] didn’t say [why]...made us tie Wilfred up” (Golding 159). Jack has ordered his hunters to tie up one of his hunters for no reason, and proceeds to beat him up as a scare tactic for the other boys. He does this solely because he just has the power to hurt others, which he demonstrates once again when he goes on a hunt for Ralph later in the story. This event clearly shows Golding’s opposition to absolute rule, as Jack acts selfishly and arrogantly, and most of the decisions he makes are completely useless to the survival of the group. All his hunters unanimously respect him out of fear, or as Hobbes described in his support of a monarchy, universal awe. In the end, while all the citizens obey a common leader and do not argue among themselves, the tribe still remains broken and unproductive, unified under a corrupt leader. It can be argued that Golding’s