The Situational Novel: Pincher Martin by Golding

Pincher Martin, Golding’s most powerful and greatest literary achievement, has certain elements that enable us to discern it as a novel of situation. The competition against the sea by a Naval Officer for survival is the basic tension and conflict before death and endows this relevant situation with some kind of religious sanctity. It is a complex work of art, and it appears to be the most significant expression of Golding’s capacity to fuse content and form in the novel.

The novel has a very simple story. What we enjoy in the novel is the soul-drama of the protagonist. Martin, the naval officer is thrown into the North Atlantic at the time of attack from a submarine. Once in the vast Ocean, he fights for life and finds a rock in the ocean for help. Having reached it and occupying it, he began finding ways of escape. The novel is filled with Martin’s thoughts and recollections of the by gone days.

This offers a peep-hole to look into the secret in a hopeless situation on the Rock, in North Atlantic Sea. Since the novelist gives importance to the situation, it is no question whether Martin died within the second page of the novel itself or suffered for seven days. The story is about Martin and his struggle and suffering and his death becomes sublime, which is therefore non-specific with regard to time.

In Pincher Martin the psychology of the protagonist in isolation seems to be related to the basic theme of the novel.

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The isolation of Martin makes him aggressive, even though he has nobody other than the elemental forces to fight against. As stated earlier the novel presents a competitive situation, the man in competition with the sea. Pincher Martin is in competition with the sea. The competitive spirit is part of the aggressive behavior of human beings. Martin is aggressive against God and the elemental forces. He is very adamant and competitive in spirit and this is a sign of the aggressive drive of human mind.

An extended elaboration of the aggressive drive in Martin is necessary to make his position explicit. The situation of man in extremity many drown him in sin. The natural depravity of man is the cause of violence in him. Man may show the spirit of aggression against the force of circumstances. This psychology of the aggression of human mind can be detected in the struggle of Pincher Martin. Even though Martin is ineffectual in the isolated surroundings, his mind is competitive in spirit as he longed to preserve his precious life. Golding himself, a member of the Royal Navy for a time was in command of a ship during the war. Hence a very clear-cut description of the working of the mind of the naval personal id made possible. Golding’s experience of the dangers of war and man’s lack of reasoning during war time might have inflicted an unrecognizable psychological obsession in his mind. His experience of the war might have shown to him the cause of the aggressive drive of human beings. The sailors are proud to be competitive and are eager to take up challengers. Many of them are ever confident like Martin and are competitive in spirit.

As in Lord of The Flies, her also the survival-adventure situation is prominent. Martin is in situation, as he is caught between survival and death. It may be noted that Martin is mixing his supposedly real situation on the rock with memories of his past and fears of his future. Here neither survival nor extinction is the problem, but the critical moment in between the two, the tormenting flashbacks of his past life. The whole drama is on the rock, and the suffering which Martin undergoes is the situation in which he is. This may be symbolic of the battle of all men for salvation.

Having discussed the theme, the impact of the form and method of the novel may be examined. There is only one character in the novel that deserves a name and the whole story revolves round him. This one and only worthy character is placed in situation. His thoughts are determined by the situation and the character is not allowed to progress in the first four chapters. Martin appears to be a very vigorous spirit, with a challenging mood, ready to face the perilous process of living. Martin is put in a seemingly heroic atmosphere, and he fights heroically about in his passion. But this development into heroic stature is limited and subjected to the demands of the situation.

As Golding stresses here on situation his protagonist has become “a doomed modern hero, greedy for survival at all costs”. From the very first page of the novel onwards, we are allowed to see the picture of Martin’s self and thereby knowledge is created that Christopher Hardly Martin is not simply a Naval Officer, but more than that, he is Everyman. By placing the hero ‘between the devil and the mid-sea’, which is not a totally unexpected situation for the mariner, Golding has been able to suffuse the universal tragic situation into his novel. Even though characterization is not stressed upon, Golding’s Martin becomes heroic, since the tragic intensity of the situation increases his importance. So the method of subordinating character to situation in order to achieve depth displays the form as such of the novel of situation.

If we are to accept the period of struggle lasting for seven days we can detect each day’s agony as each stage in his passage to the “Otherworld”. In the first day’s struggle, Martin pledges that he will not so willingly let himself die. He thinks high of himself and believes that his self is something very precious to be preserved. So he decides to fight against nature to preserve his life and thinks that upholding it is considered to be proof of life. His thoughts are hard and at the same time unconnected, but they nourish a central idea-his strong determination to live. This is proof of ego, and Golding has expressed his view that Martin is greatly egocentric.