Character analysis
The Lord of the Flies (The Beast)
in Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lord of the Flies isn't just a typical character; it's a symbol of the inherent evil in humanity within William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Its physical representation is a pig's head, skewered on a sharpened stick by Jack's hunters, serving as a sacrificial offering on the mountaintop. As the head decays and becomes infested with flies, it turns into the novel's key symbol: the darkness within humanity that civilization usually keeps at bay.
The figure's most crucial moment happens in Chapter 8, when Simon, who has epilepsy, hallucinates that the head is speaking to him. In this haunting internal dialogue, the "Lord of the Flies" (which translates from Hebrew as Ba'alzevuv, or Beelzebub) reveals to Simon that the Beast isn't an outside creature but resides within each person on the island — "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!" It threatens Simon with the same brutality that the boys will later unleash on him, hinting at his impending murder.
As a narrative element, the Lord of the Flies makes the novel's main point clear: savagery doesn't stem from external forces but springs from within. It reflects the evolution of Jack's tribe — from playful hunters to cold-blooded killers — and contrasts sharply with Ralph's dwindling democratic order. Its influence grows as civilization crumbles, reaching a grotesque climax when Roger and the hunters completely shed their moral constraints. Although Simon ultimately destroys the rotten head, swarming with flies, the evil it signifies cannot be eradicated.
Who they are
The Lord of the Flies functions as the novel's central symbolic embodiment rather than a character in the traditional sense. It represents a rotting pig's head, severed from a sow killed by Jack's hunters and impaled on a sharpened stick in the forest clearing. Jack offers it as a ritual gift to the Beast in Chapter 8, declaring, "we're leaving it as a gift." Flies quickly infest the eye sockets and spilled blood, and the stench of decay spreads throughout the jungle. The name is a direct translation of the Hebrew Ba'alzevuv — Beelzebub, a name associated with the Devil — indicating Golding's intentional choice. This figure is not an external monster to be hunted; it materializes the evil the boys harbor within, manifesting in a rotting, buzzing, grinning visage.
Arc & motivation
The Lord of the Flies lacks a narrative arc, but its symbolic weight grows with each chapter. Initially a crude trophy and religious prop, the head evolves into a more sinister icon: the deity presiding over the island's emerging savagery. Its influence increases parallel to Ralph's diminishing democratic authority. The idol does not cause the boys' descent — Golding is careful about that — but it reflects and legitimises it, providing Jack's tribe with a theological justification for their violence. Its "motivation," as a symbol, lies in revealing a truth that civilization typically suppresses: the innate capacity for cruelty.
Key moments
A key scene unfolds in Chapter 8, "Gift for the Darkness," when Simon experiences an epileptic fit near the pig's head and hallucinates its voice. The voice of the Lord of the Flies is contemptuous and absolute: "Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill!" It dismantles the comforting illusions the boys have constructed — that the Beast exists externally, that it can be defeated, that the island's violence is an aberration. The voice identifies with the boys: "You knew, didn't you? I'm part of you?" It menaces Simon directly — "We are going to have fun on this island" — foreshadowing his murder by the very boys influenced by the Beast. Simon subsequently tears down the head and stumbles toward the beach to share his truth with the others, only to be killed before he can speak. In Chapter 9, the dethroned, broken idol rots in the clearing, swarming with flies — yet the evil it signified has already spread far beyond that glade.
Relationships in depth
The Lord of the Flies interacts with each major figure uniquely, serving almost as a diagnostic tool for the moral state of each boy. Simon is its sole genuine interlocutor; the dialogue in Chapter 8 confirms his intuition that the Beast is internal, while also prophesying his destruction, making it both his dark mirror and the instrument of his end. Jack creates and becomes the high priest of the head; it symbolizes his theocracy, sanctifying bloodlust through ritual and removing the guilt civilization would impose. Roger, who sharpens the stake on which the head is mounted, embodies the Lord of the Flies — he fully surrenders to sadistic impulses, exemplified in Piggy's murder, which manifests the violence the idol merely promises. Ralph never confronts the head directly, which is significant: his authority wanes in inverse proportion to the idol's rising influence, positioning them as opposites — order versus primal chaos. Piggy, whose reason leads him to dismiss the Beast as superstition, cannot grasp the symbolic truth the head embodies, rendering him defenseless against the evil he refuses to acknowledge. Even the Naval Officer, whose arrival concludes the island narrative, is implicated: his carefree ignorance about events suggests that the Beast's presence is not confined to the island but persists in the adult world of warfare that sent the boys there originally.
Connected characters
- Simon
Simon is the only boy who directly 'communes' with the Lord of the Flies in his hallucination in Chapter 8. The Beast's voice confirms Simon's own intuition that evil is internal, but also prophesies his death — 'We are going to have fun on this island' — making the Lord of the Flies both Simon's dark mirror and his doom.
- Jack Merridew
Jack and his hunters create the Lord of the Flies by mounting the sow's head as a tribal offering. Jack's descent into savagery is inseparable from the idol he erects; the Lord of the Flies is effectively the deity of Jack's regime, legitimizing his violence and the tribe's ritualistic bloodlust.
- Ralph
Ralph never directly encounters the Lord of the Flies, but it represents everything his leadership fails to contain. The idol's growing power on the island is the inverse measure of Ralph's declining authority, making the two symbolic opposites: civilization versus primal chaos.
- Piggy
Piggy's rationalism renders him constitutionally blind to the symbolic truth the Lord of the Flies embodies. He dismisses the Beast as superstition, and this inability to reckon with innate evil contributes to his vulnerability and ultimate death at Roger's hands.
- Roger
Roger is the Lord of the Flies made flesh — the boy most fully consumed by sadistic impulse. He sharpens the stick on which the head is mounted and later kills Piggy, enacting the violence the idol symbolically promises. Roger is the Beast's most literal human avatar.
- Sam and Eric (Samneric)
Sam and Eric's terrified misidentification of Simon's convulsing body as the Beast near the Lord of the Flies' territory illustrates how the idol warps perception. Their fear makes them complicit in Simon's murder, showing how the Beast's influence corrupts even the most loyal and well-meaning boys.
naval-officer
The Naval Officer's arrival dissolves the island's savagery but cannot undo it. His obliviousness to the evil that flourished under his civilization's nose implicitly suggests that the Lord of the Flies — the Beast within — persists beyond the island, embedded in adult society and war itself.
Use this in your essay
The Beast as internal rather than external evil: Investigate how Golding employs the Lord of the Flies to dismantle the boys' externalizations of the Beast
the dead parachutist, the creature in the water — until Simon's hallucination leads to an inward confrontation. What does this indicate about Golding's perspective on human nature?
The Lord of the Flies as religious idol: Analyze Jack's establishment of the pig's head in light of religious sacrifice and theocratic authority. How does the idol legitimize violence by sacralizing it?
Roger as the Beast incarnate: Explore Roger's escalating actions
the stones thrown at Henry, the sow's torture, Piggy's murder — to construct a thesis regarding how the Lord of the Flies externalizes and validates Roger's inherent sadism.
Simon as the only character who truly "defeats" the Beast: Simon destroys the rotting head in Chapter 9 but is killed before he can reveal its truth. Is Golding suggesting that true moral insight is ineffective in a world ruled by the mob?
The persistence of the Beast beyond the island: The Naval Officer's arrival is often seen as a rescue, yet consider how the adult world of warships and military uniforms implies that the domain of the Lord of the Flies extends beyond the island, implicating civilization itself.