About the Trilogy
The trilogy consists of The Golden Compass/ Northern Lights (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000). The books received critical success, especially in the United Kingdoms, and received many awards including:
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Summary of the Books
***Disclaimer***: I do not go in depth on the story lines so that spoilers are kept to a minimal!!! If you want in-depth descriptions on the events in the novels please visit:
- His Dark Materials Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials#Northern_Lights_.28or_The_Golden_Compass.29
- Philip Pullman's official site at http://www.philip-pullman.com/hdm.php?pageID=2
- The Unofficial trilogy website Bridge to the Stars.net promoted by Pullman at http://www.bridgetothestars.net/index.php?d=trilogy
The Golden Compass/Northern Lights
The first book of the trilogy introduces us to Lyra Belacqua and her world. Lyra is an orphan being reared at Jordan College, Oxford in a world parallel to ours by scholars. Although her world his very similar to ours, it shows many differences. The most distinct difference is that every human has a deamon, which is an extension of themselves. They take on the shape of various different kinds of animals during childhood and settle when the person reaches adulthood (For more information see the Allegories and Symbolism page). Other fanatastical elements in Lyra's world include witches, armored bears and instruments of mythical power controlled by Dust. Lyra was very content living at Jordan College until one day she stumbles upon the knowledge of Dust and people known as Gobblers (The Oblation Board) controlled by the Church, starts kidnapping children and taking them to the far North (North Pole to us). Following the kidnapping of her beast friend Roger, a mysterious and beautiful woman by the name of Ms. Coulter takes her in as an assistant and student and the head of Jordan College gives her a mysterious object called an Alethiometer. However, not long after she discovers that Ms. Coulter herself his the head of the Oblation Board and her mother! With the help of the Gyptians, witches, an armored bear and an aeronaut she heads North to save the kidnapped children.
"She will be followed by mechanical spies and kidnapped by Samyoed hunters. She will be betrayed and she will betray. All the while Lyra is guided by the alethiometer, a truth-telling, compass-like instrument that runs on the mysterious Dust. It has been prophesied by the witches of the North that Lyra is the one destined to bring about the end of Destiny" (Bridge to the Stars.net, unofficial series website). In the end Lyra crosses a bridge created by her father Lord Asriel and crosses into another world.
"She will be followed by mechanical spies and kidnapped by Samyoed hunters. She will be betrayed and she will betray. All the while Lyra is guided by the alethiometer, a truth-telling, compass-like instrument that runs on the mysterious Dust. It has been prophesied by the witches of the North that Lyra is the one destined to bring about the end of Destiny" (Bridge to the Stars.net, unofficial series website). In the end Lyra crosses a bridge created by her father Lord Asriel and crosses into another world.
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
The last novel of the series was the most controversial one of the three. I will copy here a summary of the book as summarized by the His Dark Materials' Wikipedia page because it truly is an excellent summary:
The Amber Spyglass tells of Lyra's kidnapping by her mother, Mrs. Coulter, an agent of the Magisterium who has learned of the prophecy identifying Lyra as the next Eve. A pair of angels, Balthamos and Baruch, inform Will that he must travel with them to give the Subtle Knife to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel, as a weapon against The Authority. Will ignores the angels; with the help of a local girl named Ama, the Bear King Iorek Byrnison, and Lord Asriel's Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, he rescues Lyra from the cave where her mother has hidden her from the Magisterium, which has become determined to kill her before she yields to temptation and sin like the original Eve.
Will, Lyra, Tialys and Salmakia journey to the Land of the Dead, temporarily parting with their dæmons to release the ghosts from their captivity. Mary Malone, a scientist from Will's world interested in "shadows" (or Dust in Lyra's world), travels to a land populated by strange sentient creatures called Mulefa. There she comes to understand the true nature of Dust, which is both created by and nourishes life which has become self-aware. Lord Asriel and the reformed Mrs. Coulter work to destroy the Authority's Regent Metatron. They succeed, but themselves suffer annihilation in the process by pulling Metatron into the abyss. The Authority [God as we know him] himself dies of his own frailty when Will and Lyra free him from the crystal prison wherein Metatron had trapped him, able to do so because an attack by cliff-ghasts kills or drives away the prison's protectors. When Will and Lyra emerge from the land of the dead, they find their dæmons. The book ends with Will and Lyra falling in love but realizing they cannot live together in the same world, because all windows — except one from the underworld to the world of the Mulefa — must be closed to prevent the loss of Dust, and because each of them can only live full lives in their native worlds. This is the temptation that Mary was meant to give them; to help them fall in love and then choose whether they should stay together or not. During the return, Mary learns how to see her own dæmon, who takes the form of a black Alpine chough. Lyra loses her ability to intuitively read the alethiometer and determines to learn how to use her conscious mind to achieve the same effect.
I consider this novel to be the most important of the three because of the philosophical, theological, and scientific (physics) topics that Pullman addresses in The Amber Spyglass. I first read this series at 12 years old, reading it again as an adult I can't help but to notice the very serious undertones that were lost on me at an earlier age.
The Amber Spyglass tells of Lyra's kidnapping by her mother, Mrs. Coulter, an agent of the Magisterium who has learned of the prophecy identifying Lyra as the next Eve. A pair of angels, Balthamos and Baruch, inform Will that he must travel with them to give the Subtle Knife to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel, as a weapon against The Authority. Will ignores the angels; with the help of a local girl named Ama, the Bear King Iorek Byrnison, and Lord Asriel's Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, he rescues Lyra from the cave where her mother has hidden her from the Magisterium, which has become determined to kill her before she yields to temptation and sin like the original Eve.
Will, Lyra, Tialys and Salmakia journey to the Land of the Dead, temporarily parting with their dæmons to release the ghosts from their captivity. Mary Malone, a scientist from Will's world interested in "shadows" (or Dust in Lyra's world), travels to a land populated by strange sentient creatures called Mulefa. There she comes to understand the true nature of Dust, which is both created by and nourishes life which has become self-aware. Lord Asriel and the reformed Mrs. Coulter work to destroy the Authority's Regent Metatron. They succeed, but themselves suffer annihilation in the process by pulling Metatron into the abyss. The Authority [God as we know him] himself dies of his own frailty when Will and Lyra free him from the crystal prison wherein Metatron had trapped him, able to do so because an attack by cliff-ghasts kills or drives away the prison's protectors. When Will and Lyra emerge from the land of the dead, they find their dæmons. The book ends with Will and Lyra falling in love but realizing they cannot live together in the same world, because all windows — except one from the underworld to the world of the Mulefa — must be closed to prevent the loss of Dust, and because each of them can only live full lives in their native worlds. This is the temptation that Mary was meant to give them; to help them fall in love and then choose whether they should stay together or not. During the return, Mary learns how to see her own dæmon, who takes the form of a black Alpine chough. Lyra loses her ability to intuitively read the alethiometer and determines to learn how to use her conscious mind to achieve the same effect.
I consider this novel to be the most important of the three because of the philosophical, theological, and scientific (physics) topics that Pullman addresses in The Amber Spyglass. I first read this series at 12 years old, reading it again as an adult I can't help but to notice the very serious undertones that were lost on me at an earlier age.
The Goal of this Website
This Website hopes to argue that Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is an allegory, as Dr. Leonard F. Wheat puts it, against organized religion, but specifically Christianity and the existence of god. This trilogy is also an allegory that specifically criticizes the novels Paradise Lost and C.S. Lewis’ The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe through the portrayal of his characters and themes. For example, Lyra represents Eve, Will represents Adam and Dr. Mary Malone is the “snake” from Eden, feeding Will and Lyra knowledge of the “forbidden Fruit” named in the novels as “Dust” and placing the fruit of temptation in front of them (love). Through the ending of his trilogy, Pullman takes a jab at C.S. Lewis’ more biblical story telling which we will discuss in the following web pages.