Foreign Literature Studies ›› 2019, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (2): 74-85.

• British Literature Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Confrontational Morality and Integrated Life: A Study on Nietzsche’s Moral Philosophy and The Inheritors by William Golding

Zhou Yanyu, Wang Aiju   

  • Online:2019-04-25 Published:2022-05-18
  • About author:Zhou Yanyu is a PhD candidate at the School of Foreign Language and Literature and a lecturer at the School of International Education, Wuhan University (Wuhan 430072,China); her research area is mainly English and American literature. Email: zhouyanyu2003@163.com;Wang Aiju is a professor at the School of Foreign Language and Literature, Wuhan University (Wuhan 430072, China); her research area is also mainly English and American literature. Email: wangaiju@whu.edu.cn

Abstract: The Inheritors by William Golding represents the New Men’s brutal slaughter and genocide of the Neanderthals during the prehistoric period. Nietzsche’s moral philosophy seems to have reinforced the view that love, comfort and innocence, the three basic principles of Christian morality, bring an end to the Neanderthals’ life; conversely, the New Men’s self-construction, initiative, and aggressiveness epitomize the preservation and endorsement of life from master morality. The New Men’s rivalry with and massacre of Neanderthals embody the conquest of the “vulnerable and subservient” Christian morality by the extremely vigorous “master morality”. In addition, The Inheritors offers much more beyond Nietzsche’s analysis of these two kinds of moralities. Through the New Men’s adoption of “little Neanderthal baby”, the novel advocates their joint effort to construct a future for the mankind with a shared destiny.

Key words: The Inheritors, William Golding, Christian morality, master morality

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