Moral ambiguity in Darkness Visible.

Abstract

Like all of William Golding's novels, Darkness Visible is concerned with the ambiguity of moral issues, the difficulty of judgement, and breaking down the partitions that isolate men and prevent them from feeling a sense of community. The setting is England of the last forty years, which represents the hell of contemporary western society. Matty and Sophy, the main characters, live at the opposite ends of a spiritual dimension . As the novel progresses, the former's faith, altruism and selflessness enable him to redeem the paderast Pedigree and to help Sim and Edwin, two 'respectable' citizens, to taste the joy of communion, even if momentarily. Sophy on the other hand, uses her will-to-power to act more and more sadistically. Although her abduction plan is thwarted by Matty, she clears herself of all blame and moves on nonchalantly.

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Darkness Visible invokes the identical moral concerns of William Golding's first novel in an updated setting. In both novels fare evokes the generic hell of the human condition in the particular hell of World War II. As the novel is extremely ambivalent from a moral perspective and deeply disturbing, it is quite a challenge for the teacher to make the students understand and enjoy it. It destroys the binary opposition that is believed to exist between good and evil. To McCarron, the novel shows that good and evil are completely interdependent. The title of the novel is taken from Satan's words in Milton's Paradise Lost surveying the world after the Fall (42). The epigraph from Aeneid draws attention to Virgil's prayer to the dark gods to allow him to penetrate the depths. Golding, similarly, hopes to penetrate the depths of his society and of human nature and to make the darkness there visible (Crompton 99). A proper way of dealing with the novel, then, is to begin by emphasising the interdependency and relativity of good and evil and this can be best demonstrated in class by focusing on each character's good and bad deeds and thoughts.

McCarron argues that like most of Golding's later fiction Darkness Visible is concerned with the irrational, numinous force which is at the centre of life and which can be apprehended as much by piety as by outrage (51). Darkness Visible explores the difficulties of judgement in moral matters; the extremes of behaviour of which men are capable, their paradoxical saintliness and sinfulness, and the conflict that goes on within the human soul, the result of which determines whether a man is to be saved or damned (Friedman 11). Behind these lie the mysteries of the spiritual world, surrounding us but largely closed to us, invisible to or ignored by most men. Golding penetrates these mysteries using two characters that live primarily in a spiritual dimension but at opposite poles within it: Matty and Sophy. These two are symbolically linked by their initial killings. Sophy throws a stone and kills a dabchick; Matty throws a shoe, causing Henderson to fall to his death (Dicken-Fuller 45). Matty, though physically disfigured in the fires of the Blitz, is in his unworldliness, selfless-love and self-dedication some kind of saint. Opposed to him is Sophy, young, beautiful, an agent of the powers of evil, advancing as far as she can the impulse toward destruction and chaos by her criminal behaviour, sexual excesses and general attitude to life. Matty believes God determines all acts, Sophy sees only chance (Dickson 115). The structure of the novel makes it fairly easy to focus on and examine each character separately.

At the beginning of the novel, Matty, a small child, miraculously emerges from a raging London firestorm with the left side of his face burning. He survives, but the left side of his face is permanently deformed; he has no left ear, and his mouth is so misshapen that he has difficulty speaking. Attempts to identify him fail. He is just given a number for a name, seven, then two Christian names: Matthew Septimus. When read as a biblical reference, this alludes to Matthew, chapter 7, whose opening verse is 'Judge not, that ye be not judged' (in Crompton 96). Thus the major theme of the novel, judgement, is provided.

Matty is sent to a school for foundlings in Greenfield where his deformities and difficulties in speaking make him the butt of most of the boys. His dubious role in the mysterious death of his classmate Henderson and the jailing of his pederast teacher Pedigree as a result of the death give Matty a deep sense of guilt. Sarcastically called 'a treasure' by the school master Mr. Pedigree, who hankers after pretty boys like Henderson, Matty mistakes Pedigree's revulsion for affection. This literal-mindedness leads to his devotion to Pedigree. Henderson's fatal fall, whether suicidal or accidental, plays a critical formative role in the lives of Matty and Pedigree. Pedigree's unfair words of blame, 'You horrible, horrible boy! It's all your fault' (Golding 37), are taken literally by Matty, imbuing him with a sense of guilt and sinfulness. What happened to Henderson is never clearly stated. It seems that he slipped on the leads and fell. Yet Matty had thrown his gym shoe and uttered the biblical curse, and then, as his journal for 26/11/66 reveals, had watched Pedigree's window where he had seen Henderson come away. Matty had willed Henderson's death, and because he possessed a spiritual power that at that stage he did not recognise, his curse was fulfilled and Henderson fell to his death where he had thrown his gym shoe. The curse reveals both Matty's wish for his rival's destruction and the spiritual power to effect it. At the same time, Matty acts in the conviction that he is expelling the evil that Pedigree teasingly attributed to Henderson and that Matty, as usual, takes literally (Friedman 125). Matty is confused and inarticulate in trying to explain to the headmaster what he thinks has happened to Henderson, and is sent away from school. Wherever he goes to work, he is rejected. As he grows older, he experiences sexual feelings; being aware that his appearance is too disgusting to attract any female, he begins to read the Bible excessively to quench his sexual desires. Eventually, Matty becomes a wanderer, like Cain and Esau (Crompton 103), doing his best to atone for Henderson's death, which was prompted by misunderstanding. At this stage, the students could be questioned as to whether they consider Matty guilty, and also they could be prompted to give examples of his attempts at atonement- such as his stabbing his palm with a nail, giving up speech, performing his own mystical baptism in an Australian swamp, giving his life to save a boy, and returning after his own death to fetch Pedigree and grant him freedom can be regarded as examples of his attempts at atonement.

It is a fortune-teller's ball in the window of Goodchild's Rare Books that acts on Matty like a revelation, making him aware of the presence of a dimension beyond the material world (Redpath 55). He understands that he must discover himself and 'What he is for?' so he leaves for Australia. The fact that he does not receive his prophetic call through the conventional medium of the Church suggests that his subsequent mission to discover himself may not follow conventionally religious paths. One of the main lessons Marry has to learn in his adventures in Australia is the danger of his own literal-mindedness and that things are not always what they seem; for instance, the wilderness where he is stranded is not the outback but lies close to the suburbs of Darwin; the Abo who subjects him to mock crucifixion is not a genuine Abo. His various strange practices there all seem inspired by his excessive reading of the Bible. It may be necessary for the instructor to help the students interpret his strange acts by referring to the Bible.

After his return to England, Matty dedicates himself to the practices laid down in the Old Testament, forgetting food and drink, and preparing for the final judgement. Reading the Book of Revelation, he becomes convinced that 6/6/66 must be the Day of Judgement forecast in the Apocalypse. He paints the date in blood, wears it on his forehead and carries it as a warning through the streets. When nothing happens, he is disillusioned and wonders what his mission is. He returns to Greenfield where his spirits tell him his mission, which has to do with a child born on the day when Matty expected judgement. Attention should be drawn to this mission as it will lead to the confrontation between the forces of good and evil by establishing a link with Sophy (Crompton 112).

In Part 2, we observe that Sophie's spiritual powers are evident in her throwing the stone that kills the dabchick. It is an act of will operating spiritually or magically, an act of wanton and gratuitous destructiveness for which she feels no sense of guilt. It seems that some force in the nature of things is helping her when she finds the stone that fits her hand. She learns through this act the inevitable and unalterable law of 'Of course' (Golding 108), in which her will can mesh in with the universe (Redpath 95). Her advance toward evil is closely connected with her pursuit of 'weirdness'. Sophy feels 'weird' in the sense of stranger when she is caught in enacting an evil that seems to reach her from outside herself. Another element in her weirdness is a sense of inexplicably knowing the future. This is what the child Sophy experiences as the 'Of course' way things sometimes behave.

Like Matty, she learns that 'the way to simplicity is through outrage' (Golding 168); merely breaking rules is not enough. Deep down at the back of her mind she finds a long, dark tunnel with a small being at its mouth, which she calls This, the very substance of her identity (Golding 124). It is through this dark tunnel that Sophy knows herself to be different and recognises the powers of evil that wait to be exploited. Two radio programmes, one on entropy, the other on statistics, reinforce the intuition of This: that reality is dominated by destructive dynamics, which will eventually result in complete chaos. She characterises this dynamics as 'unknotting, disentangling' continually, 'wave after wave arching, spreading, running down, down, down--' (167). For Sophy freedom is allowing the spring to uncoil, to be in sympathy with the process of running down, which is the universal law. Man does not have the power to stop this movement; he can only participate in it or accelerate it (Schreurs 137). This awakens in her a desire for absolute autonomy that can be achieved only by destroying the autonomy of others. For the realisation of that autonomy she leads an a-social life, solely for herself. A discussion of Sophy's deeds to prove her absolute autonomy would be very helpful at this point.

The dark Sophy, passionately self-absorbed, and her twin sister the fair Toni, coldly unfeeling, represent the two faces of natural depravity and contemporary moral entropy. To Sim the vicious criminality of the twins can be identified with the condition of 1970's England. The betrayed promise and tragic waste that Sire associates with the 60's generation is also embodied in the twins: 'A treasure was poured out for them and they turned their back on it. A treasure not just for them but for all of us' (Golding 259; Friedman 132). The twins' physical beauty conceals their inner darkness much as Matty's disfigured face and body obscure his inner goodness. With similar powers Matty and Sophy develop in opposite directions. While Matty submits himself to the spiritual and creative, Sophy submits herself to entropy and the void, manipulating people into agreeing to her criminal plans. Her sadism is already evident from the episode where she has her first orgasm brought about by stabbing her boy friend Roland. For Sophy sex is little more than a mechanism for imposing her will on men. The plot to kidnap the rich boy is no more than an extension of Sophy's will to power through violence. The ultimate act of self-assertion, the imagined murder, fuses sex and violence into almost a ritual celebration of darkness. At the climax of her fantasy is her sliding the knife into the child'd body, feeling the sacrificial blood flow and watching the 'black sun' rising in the sky (Golding 252). This identification of Sophy with Satan, bringing sin and death into the world, prepares the way for the last act of saving the child and the triumph of the forces of good in the figure of Matty, who rushes out of the burning school ablaze from head to foot to rescue the child the terrorists are seeking to abduct (Crompton 118). After saving the child at the cost of his own life, Matty becomes spiritually whole, which is symbolised in his scarred two-tone face becoming one colour, symmetrical and beautiful (Redpath 170). This is a scene which should be pointed out to the students as revealing how far apart Sophy and Matty have progressed along the paths of goodness and evil.

The title of Part 3 "One Is One" seems to refer to the condition of spiritual isolation. The novel consistently suggests that barriers and partitions are made by humanity and therefore can be broken down, but only Matty seems able to attain this desirable unity in any permanent sense. It is his particular gift that he has the ability to break through the interpersonal wails through the power of "wordless communication" (Golding 18). He communicates silently and with great intensity his grief at human wickedness and sin, yet also the joy of his love of humanity (Boyd 144).

Sim and Edwin, long time Greenfield residents, see symptoms of irreversible decline in the new social order--loss of communal purpose and social and religious friction. Even such old friends communicate only tentatively, justifying Sim's maxim: 'One is one and all alone and ever more shall be so" (Golding 225). Alienation fosters spiritual depravity. Not coincidentally, the Little Theatre Group rehearses Sartre's No Exit, in which people eternally torture each other. The choice of this particular play in the context of Greenfield in the 70s is a very significant point for discussion. The wordless communication of Matty is the antidote to the meaningless babble of human voices (Friedman 134-35). The seance instigated by Edwin with Sim and Matty culminates in a momentary revelation of the 'ineffable promise' of the 'world of spirit" (Golding 233). The men join hands so that being touches being and the circle expands to embrace millions, a whole country. The world of Greenfield is no longer for Sim a prison or mad-house, but a world transformed to a beauty beyond words, where a lonely man may suddenly feel loved. Sim experiences an epiphany after his hand is 'read' by Matty so that the habitually sceptical Sim agrees with Edwin, who says, 'We broke a barrier, broke down a partition' (Golding 234). However, they are reluctant to agree to Matty's wish that Pedigree should be drawn into the magic circle. Incapable of self-transcendence, Sim and Edwin soon sink back into the ranks of the spiritually uncommitted unable to make use of the opportunity of entering the spiritual world by surrendering the self. Matty has touched their hearts without transforming them. Sim's apprehension of harmonious unity is confined to a single moment. When the abduction affair comes to light and their first spiritual meeting is broadcast on TV, Sim sees it as a 'public condemnation" and defends himself: 'We did nothing! It was a kind of praying!' Edwin's response is worse. 'We're not innocent. We're worse than guilty. We're funny. We made the mistake of thinking you could see through a brick wall' (Golding 255, 258). Thus they both deny the sense of communion they felt thanks to Matty.

At this stage the shortcomings of Sim and Edwin, which condemn them to spiritual deprivation could be discussed as well as the reasons for their reluctance to accept Pedigree into their circle. Sim, who is a model of decency and respectability in appearance, too has paedophile inclinations, in his case young girls. He dotes on the Stanhope twins. His reason to shun Pedigree is that Pedigree reminds him of the truth about himself. His involvement with Pedigree and his entry into Sophy's territory for the seance force out of him a confession to Edwin about the Stanhope girls: 'I used to be in love with them' (Golding 224). It may be argued that Pedigree is a greater sinner than Sim because he has allowed his illicit desires to be transformed into action whereas Sim has only indulged in fantasies. However, Boyd points out that Christ takes the thought for the deed (149), and hence judgement on Sim and Pedigree is not a simple matter of black and white. Edwin, on the other hand, fails to see that his sexually ambivalent marriage could be the cause of his over-sensitivity to Pedigree's perversity. Matty is determined to try to redeem the enemy whom he loves, to cleanse him of filth, to cure and free him from his obsession. Pedigree's insistence on his folly has made him an object of righteous anger. To Matty, Pedigree resembles the supreme scapegoat in that he is 'despised and rejected' (Golding 96) and on him the sins of the community are imposed. It is implied that judgement is not an easy matter. Perhaps Pedigree differs from ordinary people not in being more wicked, but more unfortunate, an object worthy of pity rather than hate; although, as the narrator notes, 'It is not recorded anywhere if there was a single person living in Greenfield who pitied him' (Golding 85; Boyd 147-48). Pedigree, no worse than Sim and Edwin, has suffered more because of his weakness for beautiful boys. As he insists in his own defence, 'There have been such people in this neighbourhood, such monsters, that girl and her men, Stanhope, Goodchild, Bell even, and his ghastly wife--I'm not like them, bad but not as bad, I never hurt anybody' (Golding 264-65). Pedigree, in a way, has been driven to ever new disgraces by the loathing with which he is regarded by the inhabitants of Greenfield and has become a prisoner of lavatories. He knows that one day his fears may make him a child murderer as well as a child molester.

Matty's unchanging love for Pedigree seems to indicate that Matty believes him capable of being saved. When the dead Matty appears before him in the park, with his face transformed, 'no longer two-tone but gold' (Golding 265), floating and waving, Pedigree makes one last effort to resist him. As he has come to redeem and rescue him by cutting him loose from his subservience to his passion and bringing him the freedom of death, he draws away the multicoloured ball that Pedigree is clutching to lure children. The appalling struggle that goes on inside Pedigree shows that he is not simply a beast. What saves him is the love of Matty. To Boyd, the Christian reading suggests that it is not for us to judge; we are all sinners. Matty may be said to represent Christ's sacrifice which made possible the salvation of the likes of Pedigree, which opened the gates of Heaven to all of us (152).

The sceptical, unreligious voice is also present as the park-keeper, who finds the dead body of Pedigree, knowing 'the filthy old thing would never be cured' (Golding 265). Perhaps the vision of salvation was simply a hallucination of the dying Pedigree, the resurrected Matty a mere fantasy. Boyd suggests that a middle way of interpretation could be that for Pedigree salvation and redemption is the knowledge that he is loved and forgiven. This is what provokes tears of joy in him and turns a world of filth and guilt to golden light and warmth. As Boyd contends, in imitation of the teachings of Christ, Matty forgives Pedigree and thus transforms the world and breaks down the walls that keep us each in his cell (153), but he incarnates potential, not actual salvation. To be saved, humanity must also generate the good as Matty notes: 'What good is not breathed into the world by the Holy Spirit must come down by and through the nature of man' (Golding 237-38).

What do the students think of the ending, which has the usual ambivalence of Golding's novels? After questioning them about whether there justice in the author's treatment of the characters, it should be pointed out that no one is punished and no one is rewarded because the novel is not about justice or fairness, but the difficulty of judgement in moral issues. Only the possibility, not the certainty of redemption is suggested (Friedman 137). It might be claimed that Matty represents the spirit and Sophy the body. But we cannot be certain of the reality of the spiritual and its relationship to Matty because he has a tendency to regard everything in a biblical light and he often misinterprets things owing to his literal mindedness. Moreover, we can never be entirely sure of the actuality of the spirits with their almost impossible demands on Matty. Besides, Sim's refusal to accept Edwin's observation that the football passed through Matty's feet seems to make light of the spiritual aspect. It ought to be pointed out to students that one of the possible interpretations is that a spiritual dimension intersects with the material and influences its course. The only way to become aware of the spiritual may be to submit to it uncompromisingly (Redpath 53-54); in the selfish and depraved world depicted only Matty is capable of such commitment.

Works Cited

Boyd, S. J. The Novels of William Golding. 2nd ed. NY: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990. Crompton, Don. A View from the Spire. Oxford: Blackwell, 1985.

Dicken-Fuller, Nicola C. William Golding's Use of Symbolism. Sussex, England: The Book Guild Ltd., 1990.

Dickson, L. L. The Modern Allegories of William Golding. Tampo: The University of Florida Press, 1990.

Friedman, Lawrence S. William Golding. New York: Continuum Pub. Co., 1993.

Golding, William. Darkness Visible. London: Faber and Faber, 1979.

McCarron, Kevin. William Golding. Plymouth, U.K.: Northcote House Pub., 1994.

Redpath, Philip. William Golding: a Structural Reading of his Fiction. London: Vision & Barnes, and Noble, 1986.

Schreurs, Willy. "Darkness Visible: The Choice Between Good and Evil." William Golding: the Sound of Silence. Ed. Jeanne Delbaere. Liege, Belgium: Liege Language and Literature, 1991. 133-145.

Nursel Icoz, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Nursel Icoz, a full-time professor in the English Department, teaches fiction and modern drama.