Darkness Visible: Analysis of Major Characters
"Darkness Visible: Analysis of Major Characters" offers an in-depth exploration of key figures in a narrative marked by trauma, moral ambiguity, and the quest for redemption. The protagonist, Matty "Septimus" Windrave, is portrayed as a deeply scarred survivor of a tragic past who, despite his physical and psychological wounds, seeks purpose and spiritual enlightenment. His journey weaves through experiences of rejection and eventual sacrifice, particularly highlighted in a climactic act of bravery to save an innocent child from harm.
Antagonistically, characters like Sebastian Pedigree and the Stanhope twins—Sophy and Antoinette—represent contrasting shades of moral failure and complexity. Pedigree's tragic trajectory of guilt and self-loathing culminates in his haunting encounter with Matty, while Sophy and Toni's darker inclinations reveal a disturbing blend of innocence and malevolence, pursuing destructive desires under the guise of personal freedom or political ideology. Supporting characters, such as Sim and Ruth Goodchild, provide a counterbalance to the chaos, embodying integrity and insight that gradually unveil the true nature of those around them.
The narrative presents a vivid tapestry of human experience, probing themes of suffering, redemption, and the consequences of one’s choices, inviting readers to reflect on the deeper moral questions that arise from these complex character arcs.
Darkness Visible: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: William Golding
First published: 1979
Genre: Novel
Locale: London and Greenfield, England; and Australia
Plot: Moral
Time: After World War II
Matty “Septimus” Windrave, also called Windrove or Windgrave, the protagonist, a branded victim of the London firebombing. His past a blank slate, his body horribly burned, and his mind psychologically scarred, Matty Windrave remains an outcast throughout his life because of his monstrous condition—a limp, a two-toned face, a half-bald skull, and a ghastly ear. At the Foundlings School at Greenfield, despite his high-minded craving for knowledge, he is rejected by schoolmasters and classmates alike, a rejection that leads to his quest for spiritual meaning to explain his fate and to point the way toward his destiny. Introspective and enduring, he works as a laborer in Australia (always with superior testimonials) until a mystical experience leads him to write a journal of his mission and directs him back to Greenfield and the beautiful, clever Stanhope twins. Back in Greenfield, he redeems himself by once again being consumed by fire, in this case, a firebomb that burns down his old school. Thanks to Matty, the fire fails to harm the kidnapped Arab child whom he frees. Whether he is a mystic-seer or deluded fanatic, Matty sacrifices himself for an innocent.
Sebastian Pedigree, a pitiable pederast who taught in the boys' school Matty attended. His deviant inclinations lead to a child's suicide, his own dismissal, a series of imprisonments, and his moral and economic decline. He meets Matty's unspoken pleas for friendship with horror and rejection, blaming him for the tragic pattern of his life. The slightly built and graying Pedigree cannot control the tide of passion that overtakes him in waves, and he relies on a multi-colored ball to attract young boys to his center of existence, the public toilets. For all of his sins, he understands suffering and guilt. He is the final witness to Matty's return from the dead. Whether that return is a hallucination or a beatific vision, it is the last thing Pedigree ever sees, as he prays for an end to his surging tide of impulses.
Sophy Stanhope, a wholesomely beautiful child and then young lady whose affected innocence hides her evil twist. Having tortured animals as a child, she continues to delight in breaking conventional taboos by lying, stealing, and prostituting herself. She becomes a thrill-seeking sexual sadist, joining forces with a perverse and amoral thief (Gerry), repeatedly stabbing her sexual conquest (the narcissistic, athletic Fido), and exploiting the knowledge and position of others to further her plot to kidnap and slowly torture and kill a wealthy young Arab prince from Wandicoot School. Her failure to achieve that end leads to perjury and unsuccessful attempts to blame those around her. Her belief that she and her twin are “everything to each other” is continually disproved.
Antoinette (Toni) Stanhope, Sophy's pale, ethereal twin sister, a political terrorist. Aloof, remote, and impenetrable, Toni shares her sister's unearthly beauty and perversion but pursues her evil with more controlled direction and theoretically in the name of some anarchistic political cause. Despite her drifting manner, she takes advantage of Sophy's muddled plot and, with her political associates, helps firebomb the school and take hostages to Africa, from where she broadcasts about freedom and justice. Sim calls her “mad and bad,” but Edwin recognizes the truth: “She's not human.”
Mr. Stanhope, the ineffectual, sexually driven father of the twins. He coldly dismisses them from his life, mocks their sexuality, and buries himself in his studies.
Sim Goodchild, the very decent, kindly owner of a bookstore near the center of Greenfield. Sim takes people at face value and is tolerant and forgiving. He is at first beguiled by both the Stanhope girls (for whom he had an innocent crush) and Pedigree, but eventually, even with his simple innocence, he sees them for what they are.
Ruth Goodchild, his calm, matter-of-fact wife. She is the first to see through the Stanhope girls' façade. Seeing Sophy stab one of her boyfriends makes her ill.
Edwin Bell, one of Matty's fellow students, now a tutor at the school. Embarrassed by the reappearance of Pedigree but convinced of the holiness and vision of Matty, occultist Bell longs for a mystical religious experience and persuades Sim Goodchild to share in the search. Together, they accidentally discover the place Sophy had planned to hide her kidnapping victim.