THE SPIRE by WILLIAM GOLDING (1964)

The Spire is such an ambiguous novel that it is extremely difficult to write about. It has many layers and the narration from an unreliable source becomes more and more hallucinatory as the story progresses. One could write a whole Master's degree thesis about the possible interpretations and implications and symbolism. However, the core story is easily describable.

Father Jocelyn, the Dean of an English cathedral, is inspired by a vision to add a high spire to the existing structure, which already rests on an unstable foundation. He overcomes all objections, including those from a master builder who tells him that the project is impossible. Bolstered by his hubris and convinced that the spire is the will of God, Jocelyn, believing his faith and his vision to be strong enough to overcome any obstacle, ignores and even utilizes the tragedies of human consequences.

The novel is written from an unusual third-person omniscient point of view in a stream--of-consciousness style. and as it progresses it becomes apparent that Jocelyn is growing increasingly irrational and is subject to visitations from both angels and devils. Golding convincingly draws the reader into the mind of someone who is obsessive and self-deluding.

One of the most rewarding aspects of William Golding's novels, for me, is that his obvious use of symbolism is seldom forced and is left for the reader to interpret in his or her own way. His most well-known novel, Lord of the Flies, is straightforward enough that inexperienced young readers can interpret much of Golding's intent; i.e., Piggy's glasses represent the intellect, the conch represents law and order, the beast represents the evil impulse inherent in mankind, and so forth. His later novels were not so transparent. For example, in this novel, the spire could be a phallic symbol, representing Jocelyn's unacknowledged lust, or a symbol of the Tower of Babel, representing his hubris. Or a combination, or something else entirely. I once read an interview with Golding wherein he said that many readers saw bits of symbolism in Lord of the Flies that he had not consciously intended, but that they nevertheless made perfect sense. I perhaps see meanings in this novel that Golding never intended, but they make perfect sense to me.

William Golding won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983 for his entire body of work, not just for Lord of the Flies. This is another outstanding example of his extraordinary body of work.