The Spire

The Spire
Author	William Golding
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Faber and Faber
Publication date	December 1964
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	223 pp (hardback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-571-22546-2 (paperback edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

For the sculpture, see Spire of Dublin.

The Spire is a 1964 novel by the English author William Golding. "A dark and powerful portrait of one man's will", it follows the construction of a 404-foot high spire; the vision of Dean Jocelin. In this novel, William Golding tends to take advantage of stream of consciousness writing with the additonal benefit of an omniscient narrator.

Plot

Jocelin, dean of the cathedral, begins the construction of a huge spire funded by his aunt, Lady Alison. The building goes against the advice of everyone, includng the master builder Roger Mason, as the cathedral is lacking in foundations to support the spire. However, Jocelin is determined to build a monument, claiming he has been "chosen by God" to carry out the act, with a height exalting the town and bringing them closer to God. As the novel progresses, Golding explores Jocelin's growing obbsession with the building of the spire, all the while being afflicted by pain as a result of tuberculosis in his spine. Jocelin interprets the burning heat in his back caused by the illness as an angel, alternately comforting or punishing him depending on the warmth or pain he feels. Jocelin's obbsession blinds him to the reality of what is happening, he neglects his duties as a dean, failing to pray and ignoring the people who need him most, as his illness manifests itself furthar.

Throughout the novel, Golding presents Jocelin as struggling with his attraction to Goody Pangall, the cathedral's servant Pangall's wife. Pangall walks with a limp and is impotent, and Jocelin seems to originally see good as "his daughter in God" claiming she is "as a woman should be", indicating a possible hint of msogynistic characteristics in Jocelin. However, as the novel progresses, and Goody's husband diminishes due to the bullying the builders of the spire inflict on him, Jocelin finds he can not help the sexual feeling that begin developing towards her, usually triggered by the sight of her "red hair", the dirty thougts terrifying him.

Comparisons between Goody and Rachel, Roger Mason's wife, are made throughout the novel, Jocelin claiming Goody sets an example to Rachel, whom he dislikes as he claims she speaks too much. However, Jocelin overestimates Goody's purity, as he is horrified one day when he finds Goody is embarking upon an affair with Roger Mason, the Master Builder. Riddled with envy and guilt, and completely confused by his unholy thoughts, Jocelin is left tormmented and unable to pray. He finds himself disgusted by any thoughts of sex, refered to "the devil" during his dreams, causing him to physically wrech at any thought of sex. When he masterbates at the thought of Goody, "working at the building" (a metaphor for his penis) he punishes himself by whipping his sins.

As the lives of the people around him fall apart because of the effect of the colossal task of building the spire upon their lives, Jocelin continues to push his dream to a conclusion, his visions and hallucinations (of the spire and his illness) causing him to lose all logic. As the true cost of such an endeavour becomes apparent, the story is doomed to end in tragedy. In the end, Pangall disappears and although it is never made clear his fate (due to the novel being in Jocelin's ever maddening point of view) it is debated that he was either killed, or simply ran away; Goody Pangall dies in child birth (bearing Roger Mason's child), Roger is left a broken man driven to drink and Dean Jocelin dies in the final pages before he dream is ever fully realised. Jocelin loses all his faith in God on his death bed, after realising all the pain he has inflicted onto others as a result of his obsession with religion.

Characters

Jocelin

Dean Jocelin is the character through which the novel is presented, and there is no one scene in which he is truly abandoned - the result of the stream of consciousness technique employed by William Golding. Arguably a megalomanic, Jocelin holds quite an arrogant view of himself - "my place, my house, my people... I know them all". As the construction of the spire draws to an end, Jocelin is confronted with a council who denounce his deanery as he has neglected his religious duties. Ultimately, he suffers the effects of a tumour in the spine which he had interpreted to be his guardian angel.

Roger Mason

With a "swarthy face”, “thick neck” and “cropped bullet head, Roger Mason has a strong physical appearence. He is associated with the imagery of a bull and a stallion, which act as a symbol of fertility. Acting as a contrast to Jocelin, Roger largely contrasts the faith of Jocelin with rationalism and believes that the foundations are not strong enough to hold the spire - “if they had intended for a spire they'd have laid the foundations for it”. However, he is forced to continue with the construction work as Jocelin claims to have made sure there is no work elsewhere. After the death of Goody, Roger becomes an alcoholic and is seen to be “mooing, drunk, scuttling like a crab”. In a moment of clarity, Jocelin visits Roger, and we eventually learn of his failed suicide attempt.

Rachel

Roger's wife, Rachel reveals to Jocelin the reason why they cannot have children - as attempts at sex result in fits of Giggles.

Pangall

"Why must they make a fool of me?" Pangall is mocked because of his impotency by the "army" of workmen. Eventually, he suffers as a result of their pagan beliefs and is sacrifically buried beneath the crossways with mistletoe "between his ribs".

Goody

Goody, who acts as an important object of love and lust, ultimately dies while giving birth. Jocelin initially sees her as "entirely woman".

Father Anselm

Anselm is largely critical of the developments concerning the spire, arguing that it is "destruction". Jocelin had been prepared to lose his friendship with Anselm as part of the cost of the spire, but we learn by the end of the novel that they appeared not to have a friendship in the first place.

Father Adam

Father Adam is dubbed by Jocelin as "Father Anonymous", who sees him to have "no face at all". Until the end of the novel as Father Adam becomes Jocelin's carer, he is largely a minor character who is suprised by how Jocelin was never taught to pray, and he does his best to help him into heaven.

Lady Alison

A wealthy mistress of the King, we learn of how the money funding the spire was a result of this affair. With the appearance of a “tiny woman”, “not much larger than a child” being plump and pale, wearing a black dress, hair, eyes, make-up but she has largely small features. Her wealth is presented through her pearls and perfume and she takes care of her appearance - “carefully preserved and tendered her face”. While she is old, she has smooth skin with fine lines and she keeps her eyebrows thin.

Symbolism

Paganism

The workmen are referred to as "an army" and Jocelin is confronted numerous times by those who disagree with the disruption they cause. Pangall is their eventual sacrifice, buried "beneath the crossways" with mistletoe between his ribs. The mistletoe can be viewed as a metaphor in terms of horror and the word “obscene” occurs several times. (The Druids' idea that the berries were the semen of the Gods may well contribute to Jocelin's revulsion) “The riotus confusion of it's branches” is alarming as well as is Jocelin's disgust at the berry on his shoe. Golding weaves the mistletoe as a pagan symbol into the naturalistic treatment of it as a sign of a physical threat to the spire. Mistletoe grows on living oak trees – if the wood is used in the building is unseasoned, it will continue to grow, revealing a scientifically explicable danger.

Imagery

Goody's red hair can be seen as symbolic for a number of things. Sexual dreams, female sexuality, the devil, lust and desire being some of the possible ideas around it. Constant animal symbolism between Roger and Goody (refered to as a bear, a bull and a stallion or a roedeer at various points in the novel) are also a possible indication of Jocelin's lack of social awareness, his childlike qualities and his nievity. However, she is said to wear a green dress, which contrast's Rachel Mason's red dress - the green can perhaps symobolise nature (a recurring paganistic theme in the novel) and the red represents Rachel's undesirable "fiery" personality. Goody is portrayed as a quiet "good woman" by Jocelin (who's view is the platform for this novel) and Rachel is not. The irony being that Goody's unfaithfulness is hidden by her hat, and only occasionaly do we spot her flame red hair (and infidelity).

The spire Jocelin wishes to raise in itself can be seen as a phallic symbol, as Jocelin initially views the model of it as a man lying on his back.

Religious imagery is used towards the end of the novel, where Jocelin lies dying. Jocelin declares "it's like the apple-tree!", making a reference to the Garden of Eden and Humanity's first sin of temptation but also perhaps the pagan ideas that have been constantly threaded into Jocelin's mind as he spends more and more time up in the Spire, raised above the ground (and further away from his church and his role as God's voice on earth).

Reception

"A most remarkable book, as unforseeable as one foresaw, an entire original... remote from the mainstream, potent, severe, even forbidding" - Frank Kermode, New York Review of Books, 30th of April, 1964.