Northern Lights is a fantasy novel written by Phillip Pullman. The novel also referred to as “The Golden Compass” in the North American market belongs to the young-adult fantasy genre. The novel is set in a parallel universe. The plot revolves around the protagonist’s, Lyra Belacqua journey to the Arctic to look for her uncle, Lord Asriel who has been imprisoned and her friend Roger Paslow. The beginning of the novel makes reference to a line from the famous poem by John Milton, “Paradise Lost”. The line from the poem is “He took the golden compasses, prepared in god’s eternal store to circumscribe, this universe and created all things”. The emphasis of the quote is on the term ‘golden compasses’ which is actually an allusion to the supposed drafting compass used by God during creation to institute and position a circular boundary in all his creation. In Northern Lights, Lyra the main character has almost a similar device, known as the alethiometer, that has close resemblance to a navigation compass and that she uses to answer questions that she asks it.
It is clear to see why the author would chose a character such as Lyra Belacqua as the vehicle to explore the images, stories and ideas emerging from the Paradise lost quotation and the novel. In the original poem by John Milton, Satan tries to overthrow God by leading an army of angels against him. He however fails and is cast down to earth by God. To seek revenge, he convinces the first of God’s creations, Adam and Eve, to eat from the forbidden tree, an action that causes the two to be banished from the Garden of Eden. In his take of Paradise Lost, Pullman tries to portray God as a senile and oppressive old man and essentially portrays Satan as a heroic figure. Pullman uses Lyra as an Eve-esque figure, a hero whose the universe’s salvation depends on. The first extraordinary thing about Lyra is that she is unlike other children who would be considered “normal”. She is not all “sugar and spice” as what many girls her age are essentially made of. Lyra is argumentative, brash, confrontational and even dishonest when she finds it suiting. With such a vast range of character traits, Lyra is indeed the perfect embodiment of the ideas, stories and images that the author wishes to express through the novel.
Lyra is too happy to point out the hypocrisies and failings the adults existing around her and to add salt to injury she does it publicly. She even goes to places that she is not allowed and in the early parts of the novel saves Lord Asriel. Such character complexity allows the author to use her to explore some issues and ideas that would be impossible to explore with a character who has a specifically defined persona or who ascribes to a given set of values, beliefs and attitudes. Lyra becomes a perfect vehicle for the exploration of both positive and negative ideas, images and stories.
Do these actions make Lyra bad person. This is a question that remains up for debate and it was probably the intention of the author to create such a character that would evoke debate from readers. Pullman’s novel to a large part is meant to question some of the society’s values and Lyra is perfect vehicle to do this. Lyra’s character traits to a large part conflict with the hierarchical and authoritarian society. It is very likely that if she lived in this current world, she would be deemed as a problematic child. However, Lyra is a girl who is gifted incredibly. She is extremely brave as evidenced by an event in the novel where she engages in a fierce face off with a polar bear known as lorek Byrnison. She berates him for his indulgence in self pity and the fact that he has allowed his exceptionally devious cousin, Lofer Raknasson to take over his kingdom.
Lyra is a good vehicle for the exploration of the ideas, images and stories in the novel also because of the fact that although she is quite devious, she uses this deviousness mainly for the good of others. For example, after telling the polar bear, lorek Byrnison the place where his armor is hidden using the alethiometer, she enlist lorek’s help and assist him in repossessing his kingdom. Lyra is also extremely loyal to her friends and it is this loyalty and bravery that spurs her to start moving northwards to rescue Lord Asriel (who she later discovers is her father) and the missing children who have been kidnapped by the evil Gobblers.
Lyra is such a well-structured character that embodies the images, ideas and stories in Philip Pullman’s novel, Northern Lights as well as his take on the famous John Milton’s poem, Paradise Lost. Her hugely complex character enables the author to explore various issues that he wishes to communicate to his readers. She is indeed the perfect vehicle to forward the author’s message and it is unimaginable to think of another character that would fulfill this role so well.
Works Cited
Isbouts, Jean-Pierre, Michael Rosenberg, and Bill Schwartz. Beyond the Golden Compass: The Magic of Phillip Pullman. United States N.p., n.d. Print.
Lenz, Millicent. His Dark Materials Illuminated: Critical Essays on Phillip Pullman's Trilogy. Wayne State University Press. 2005.
"Northern Lights - Summary." Book Drum. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
"Philip Pullman Northen Lights | The Golden Compass | About the Book." Philip Pullman official website | His Dark Materials | The Golden Compass | Sally Lockhart. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
"Philip Pullman: Northern Lights - an infinity plus review." infinity plus: science fiction, fantasy, horror and crime. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
Pullman, Philip. Northern Lights. London: Scholastic, 1998. Print.
The Golden Compass Review: Not as magical as you might hope". IGN Entertainment (ign.com). Retrieved 2007-06-02.
