The setting is essential to the theme of the darkness of man’s heart, in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. The tragic and provocative tale is set somewhere on a tropical island where a group of British boys are stranded after a plane crash, which no ‘grown-ups’ survive. It is wartime, which suggests conflict. However a sense of timelessness is developed in the novel making the era quite irrelevant. It is place rather than time that is important in the novel. The dark, unknown island generates a sense of fear in the boys, which gradually removes their veneer of civilisation to an unexpected extent, revealing the darkness of man’s heart.

The island has four main features. There is the mountain at one end, on which the boys attempt to keep a signal fire burning. There is the Castle Rock on the other end, where Jack and his tribe create their fortress at the end of the novel. In between, covering most of the island, is the dark forest. Between the edge of the forest “scattered with decaying coconuts” and the water is the beach, a “thin bow-stave, endless…” On the beach there is a bathing pool, in which the

The dark forest and the ‘beastie’ represent the unknown, which generates a sense of fear in the boys. It is this fear that initiates the change in them. The constraints of civilisation gradually break down. The boys start questioning what is right and what is wrong, finding there are no longer any boundaries. This is demonstrated by Roger, who in the beginning of the story is throwing stones at the ‘littluns’, but aiming to miss. There is a border, which he does not dare to cross. However as time passes that border is slowly eradicated and in the end he ‘throws’ the ‘ultimate stone’. The rock that kills Piggy represents the victory of chaos over rationality.

The weather on the island also has great impact on the boys. Acts of terror occur in dark and stormy settings, for example the murder of Simon. Lightning, thunder and heavy rain cause chaos in the tribe. They start dancing and chanting. Simon appears out of the forest, is caught in the frenzied circle of boys. Simon becomes the beast. The sound of chanting and the storm is “unendurable”; the boys stab Simon with their spears. He tries to escape but is pursued and killed.

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