Lord of the Flies written by William Golding and Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley are both classics that have dominated bookshelves for years. Lord of the Flies is about a group of boys stranded on an island fighting for power, and Frankenstwein is a book about a man who creates a monster that he cannot control and will not take responsibility for. These novels, rich in character and plot, are also very similar in one aspect: The darkest theme in the books. As a multi-theme novel, the themes in this book can range from nice to bad. The worst one that can be defined is inner evilness, caused by the excessive ambition of the main characters. In Lord of the Flies, Jack has an ambition to become leader of the forest, leading to his reckless ways. In Frankenstein, both Victor’s ambition to create the monster and his lack of power led to his downfall.
The darkness of human nature in Frankenstein is cruel. The lack of responsibility and neglection of imperfect items are all in-book examples. Responsibility over your creations is an important rule to science. You can’t just throw away the imperfections and leave them and only keep the perfection. In Frankenstein, Victor created a monster, a monster that was imperfect, gargantuan, and ugly. Victor, scared of his own creation, leaves it and runs. “I rushed out of the room and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep.” (chapter 5 of Frankenstein). His disgust of the abnormality and ugliness of his own creation, even at the first sight, drives him away from the requirements of responsibility, which he does not take out on well for the monster. Let’s say you created a robot dog that was slightly imperfect. You cannot simply just put the dog down and ignore/hate it, making a new dog. You have to still take responsibility for that dog, either taking care of it, or taking it apart and upcycling the materials. Victor neglects the roles of responsibility that he has, and pushes it away from him. He doesn’t like how imperfect it is, how ugly, how weird the monster is. The responsibility that the creator does not give is what he regrets about later on in the story. You bear responsibility for your actions. If you created a monster, you need to treat it well.
Darkness is also present in Lord of the Flies, especially in the action of Jack and his gang as they break apart and create their own cult. Jack is also blinded into darkness by false reality. When Jack breaks off from being under Ralph’s leadership, he and his choir form a group that resorts to violence, and he ignores civilization and the order of humanity. Jack also thinks that what he does is right, as it gives the boys protection for that day. In the book, Jack and his friends from the Hunters. However, the Hunters’ actions are not orthodox. Their intentions are bloody, the results are devastating and short-lived, yet Jack still thinks that his group is the real civilization. Jack gets a false sense of reality and security from the short-term benefits that his ideas reap. “The drove of pigs started up; and at a range of only ten yards the wooden spears with fire-hardened points flew toward the chosen pig.” (chapter eight of Lord of the Flies). By killing a pig everyday, they have food for the night, but they don’t have what might happen in the future, which is what Ralph’s group focuses on. Jack also neglects the rules and order of civilization, ending up in a wild situation. The violence they embrace gives them an excuse to kill, an excuse to be like how they are now. What’s the middle of long and short? Medium. Why is medium the best? Because it's the balance of everything. Of civilization and barbarsim, realism and fantasy.
Ambition in one is oftentimes good, but excessive ambition can lead to nothing but sorrow for the bearer. It’s usually good to have a goal in mind, but when your mind is set on only that goal and cannot think of other options, ambition becomes dangerous. Ambition can both be seen in Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies. In Frankenstein, Victor’s obsession with the origin of life and his increased ambition/determination to create a living creature is showcased with a horrible ending. In Lord of the Flies, Jack’s ambition to live off the wild in his own “civilization” and his desire for power is all in his dark ways. Victor Frankenstein in the book Frankenstein was obsessed with natural philosophy, and his obsession grew unhealthy as it consumed him slowly. His knack for manipulating science to give birth to a creature made of dead humans’ body parts by his ambition was bound to give him trouble, and it did. His inner evilness shown by neglecting the monster and creating it in the first place cannot be more repulsing. Jack, on the other hand, had a thirst for power and for blood. He had his mind set on this only, and would not let any other options cross his mind. His ambition fueled his violent ways, his pursuit of people in Ralph’s group. A goal is a goal, nothing more or less. It does not cause death if it is not fulfilled, and it shouldn’t cause arrogance if it is fulfilled, either.
The inner evilness that is located in both Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus and Lord of the Flies has disastrous results on the characters in the book. In Frankenstein, Victor learns about the burdens of responsibility and how to not neglect imperfect items that he made himself. In Lord of the Flies, Jack and his gang resort to neglect civilization and turn to bloody, violent ways, finding excuses to kill and harm the innocent. At the end of the book, he is still on the rampage, having not given up. A similar inner evil that the two books share is ambition, which can be dangerous and sinister or simply a goal to guide you in life. In Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies, ambition is on its dangerous side, consuming both of the main characters in the books. Through the themes and the actions of the characters in the novels, readers can truly learn about inner evilness and how it can impact society and humankind.
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