Betrayal

In William Golding’s story The Lord of the Flies and William Shakespeare’s play
Macbeth a strong sense of betrayal is seen throughout the stories. Betrayal in this sense is
when someone does something to another for their own personal gain. This is shown by the
build up to the betrayal, the act itself, and the events that occur because of it.

Before one can betray another, they need to have a reason to do it. In Macbeth it was
the witches claiming Macbeth will “be King hereafter!” (I, 3, Line 53). Most people would most
likely not take a mysterious people’s words to heart, Macbeth was this way too, but the other
prophecy the witches stated also came true. Macbeth became the Thane of Cawdor. This got
Macbeth to start scheming to claim the throne. In The Lord of the Flies, Jack too also wanted to
gain power over the boys, this was shown when he claimed “he ought to be chief … because
[he is] chapter chorister and head boy. [He] can [also] sing C sharp.” (Golding, 1954, pg. 16).
But where Jack differs from Macbeth is that he had another motive. Jack wanted to hunt and kill
a pig and would want to stay on the island until he does so. These are the motives of both
Macbeth and Jack’s betrayals.

Once someone receives a motive, it’s only a matter of time before they will act upon it. In
Macbeth’s case he ended up killing the king and planting the evidence on the king’s guard to
place suspicion on them. This was done so Macbeth could manipulate the people around him to
think that the guard killed the king, and so he can act as if he would get revenge for the death of
the king. Macbeth also sent murderers after his best friend and his son because the witches
said that the son would also be King. Jack’s betrayal also involves a death, but the death
involves an animal rather than a human. Jack ended up leaving Ralph’s group of boys with his
group and killed a pig. The reason this is a betrayal is because while he did this, he called Ralph
a coward so he can take power for himself and he also achieved what he wanted to do from the
beginning: hunt a pig. Later on though, Jack does another thing that could also be considered a
betrayal and that is when he steals Piggy’s glasses from Ralph’s camp. The reason for why he
did this is so that he now has control over fire, therefore having control over if they can or can
not be rescued from the island. This is how both Jack and Macbeth betrayed the people around
them.

Whenever someone betrays another, there will always be consequences to their actions.
In both The Lord of the Flies and Macbeth, the betrayal sparked a rebellion. In Macbeth’s case
both England and Macduff’s army started rebelling against him. This is because the Thanes
realized that Macbeth had plotted to kill the king. In The Lord of the Flies, there was a war to
decide which ideology is better: Savagery or Civilization with Ralph representing Civilization and
Jack representing Savagery. However, the two stories differ in the fate of the antagonist. In The
Lord of the Flies, when a naval officer came to the island after he saw the signal fire, Jack saw
him and he along with the other boys in his tribe start crying and reflect on their actions.
Macbeth on the other hand, was slain for his misdeeds. He was under the impression that when
the Witches’ prophecy said “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.” (IV, 1, Lines 88 - 89).
This caused Macbeth to be cocky with his fight with Macduff, which lead to his downfall. The
betrayals of both stories led to events that caused the downfall of the antagonists.

In both stories Jack and Macbeth betrayed their respective groups for their own personal
gain. The reasons for why they did this are clear and the actions they take to do so caused
problems for our protagonists. In the end both Macbeth and Jack suffered for their betrayals in
their own ways.