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

the sign of being undervalued, he will feel grief and thus attack others to gain respect. According to Hobbes though, this emotion can easily be prevented when there is an absolute monarch to overawe everybody and distract them from their own quibblings. Another source of contention is greed, where if two individuals each desire the same thing, they will naturally become hostile toward each other unless one is scared or controlled into submission. As a result, individuals are never completely protected and need to be alert for over the evils of humanity. A similar source is people’s lack of social status or wealth, which causes them to contemplate the power they could gain if they overthrow more privileged people, and thus often give in to an impulse to attack others. Overall, Hobbes expresses that the three sources of disharmony among men are greed, lack of status, and desire for glory, and if there is no absolute monarch to awe everyone, every man is at war with every other man.
Throughout the book, Golding’s portrayal of the conflict between Ralph and Jack as Jack gains power falls in line with Hobbes’s view that human nature causes people to attack one another. In the beginning of the story, when Jack unsuccessfully tries to hunt a pig, he and Ralph start up an argument where Jack initially declares: “We want meat...with the grass” (Golding 51,52). (I’ll snip the quote later). When Jack neglects his duty to build shelters or the signal fire, instead hunting and playing all day, Ralph confronts him, to which Jack responds that the boys “need meat”, as if it was more important than rescue and survival. In reality, though, he just wants to show off his power and hunting skills following his recent failure to kill a pig. Much like how Hobbes claims desire for glory is a source of contention, Jack just wants the boys to idolize him as much as he idolizes himself. In the midst of all this, Jack’s behavior conflicts with Ralph, who represents democracy and rationality, ultimately leading to a growing divide among the boys. Overall, like Hobbes, Golding demonstrates through the conflict between Ralph and Jack that humans act in detrimental ways due to a desire for glory and influence.
On the other hand, Golding’s depiction of Jack’s vicious and iron-fisted “leadership” of his savages satirizes and denounces the idea of absolute monarchy, which Hobbes supports.

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

point is invalid, as Hobbes said absolute monarchy would only work under a social contract. However, many of the hunters were choirboys who respected and agreed to obey Jack from the very beginning. In fact, many of them voluntarily left Ralph just to join Jack’s tribe, only to quickly devolve into savages. Overall, Golding’s portrayal of Jack as chief mocks Hobbes’s proposal of an absolute ruler to solve humanity’s problems.
Golding’s use of the events surrounding Jack’s growing power in the island in Lord of the Flies both stresses Hobbes’s assertion that human nature drives violence and war and mocks his idea that an absolute monarch can solve society’s problems. Thomas Hobbes believed that the three sources of contention in society are greed, diffidence, and glory, and can only be prevented with an overarching absolute monarch. Golding asserts a similar position about human nature with his portrayal of the growing conflict between Ralph and Jack and Jack gains power. However, he also denounces the idea of an absolute ruler through Jack’s actions as chief of his tribe. Issues like these are important in society because many people today who live in a democracy care about their lives and what the government does, and need to understand what the sources of chaos and violence in society are to avoid making mistakes (not the best wording).