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Abstract
The present paper aims at a close analysis of two novels that bring to light the issue of human behaviour and survival in unfamiliar conditions: The Coral Island, by Robert Michael Ballantyne and Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. Although the former novel has served as a source of inspiration for the latter, its utopian atmosphere and the power relations in it are cruelly overshadowed by the dystopian perspective Golding offers. Strikingly enough, the characters in both novels are cast on islands of almost equal beauty and resources and are let free to choose in fairly similar extreme contexts. However, the reader is faced with two unexpected unveilings of human manifestations that reveal the inner structure of the acting people in both cases. By means of a transfer of concepts from the psychological field of Emotional Intelligence, the profiles of the characters gain new dimensions, and the reader gets a deeper insight into the intricate inner workings of the human mind and human relations, and not in the least, into the power of the context to turn these relations into beneficial or destructive outcomes. The boys themselves - with their emotional and ethical heritage - determine the courses of action and in the end they either rejoice in the emotional and the moral choices they have made or deplore the flaws of their character.
Key words: Emotional Intelligence, emotional competences, character, context, leadership
Literature is the best realm where readers can meet themselves in new, unexpected contexts and can face their hopes, joys, fears, and anxieties. By means of the characters writers construct, literature opens itself up to new interpretations and it is precisely here that psychology, through the present focus on Emotional Intelligence, can cast a new light on the inner workings of people's mind and character and on the impact various contexts can have on their development and manifestation.
Characters in literature have different ways of revealing their inner self with emotions and values and the readers can reach a better understanding of them when they are mindful not only of the words that express their thoughts but also of the working mechanism behind the thoughts:
If an author chooses to have access to the thoughts in a character's head,...