The Portrayal of the Main Female Characters in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy Fanny Sundman ENGK01 Degree essay in English Literature Spring semester 2013 Centre for Languages and Literature Lund University Supervisor: Birgitta Berglund Sundman Abstract This thesis, based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, analyses, from a gender perspective, the depiction of the two main female characters, the main protagonist Lyra and her mother Marisa Coulter, by contemplating their developments throughout the story and by comparing them to the depiction and development of their male counterparts: the second protagonist Will, and Lyra's father Lord Asriel. By examining how they relate to stereotypes and traditional gender roles; how femininity and masculinity are applied to the characters; how power is attributed differently depending on gender and by demonstrating how Lyra and Marisa both undergo radical transformations during the course of the plot, inhabiting conventional female roles, I argue that the novels support notions of innate inequality between men and women, from a feminist viewpoint, on the level of character portrayal. Sundman Contents Introduction..............................................................................................................1 The mother and the patriarchy..................................................................................2 Lyra and Will and the new Genesis..........................................................................9 Conclusion...............................................................................................................16 Works Cited.............................................................................................................18 Sundman Introduction Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, a fantasy trilogy consisting of Northern Lights (1995), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000) (abbreviated into references as NL, SK and AS), tells a story about a war between science and religion, which takes place across several parallel worlds; a war in which all of human consciousness as well as free will is at stake. The trilogy partially alludes to John Milton’s Paradise Lost, inventing a modern version of Genesis: the story of Eve and Adam committing Original Sin in the Garden of Eden – but instead of condemning this “Fall of Man” the trilogy celebrates mankind’s “fall” into knowledge and consciousness. In the story, the Church is trying to reset the innocence of man by trying to eliminate consciousness altogether (consciousness takes physical form here as a newly discovered type of particle, named “Dust”), whilst their opponents, depicted as the righteous forces, counter their attempts by endeavouring to destroy the very core of Christianity, through killing the Authority himself, i.e. God. The protagonist is Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who is prophesied to play a great part in this war by taking the role of the second Eve and so again “fall into temptation” and thus hinder Dust from draining out from existence. Despite being symbolically presented as the not-yet-seduced Eve, Lyra is not the vision of an innocent little girl; instead she is vigorous, headstrong and disobedient. Thus, Pullman adopts one of our most ancient myths, that of Eve, representing woman, causing humanity to fall into sin, and inverts it, making a new Eve the very saviour of humanity. From a feminist viewpoint it would be close at hand to argue that this is a tale which brings redemption to womankind in rewriting this legend to women’s advantage, and in doing so using not only a strong heroine, but a number of strong female characters, as Robin Anne Reid mentions in her book: “The worlds of Pullman’s imagination are populated by scores of strong, dynamic female characters [...] Pullman’s characters transcend traditional gender roles” (248). The purpose of this essay is to critically analyse whether or not Pullman has really succeeded in creating characters that “transcend traditional gender roles” and if the story is as feminist as it may appear. In applying a gender analysis on this trilogy my main intention is to reveal underlying messages concerning masculinity and femininity. This essay departs from the feminist notion that femininity and masculinity are cultural constructions, as Mary Evans mentions in her book on gender and social theory: “we construct our gendered selves 1 Sundman through ‘performativity’ – the ‘performance’ of socially established expectations of the masculine or the feminine” (57). Feminism is as much about looking at how masculine ideals affect men as it is about how feminine ideals affect women and in my analysis I will look at the portrayal of men as well as women. However, I will mostly examine the male characters for comparison-purposes as my main focus will be on the female characters. I will focus my analysis on the female protagonist, Lyra, and her mother, Marisa Coulter, who besides Lyra is the most prominent female character, and like her daughter, she also changes considerably through the tale. My main focus will be on Lyra and Marisa, and during the analysis I will compare them to their male counterparts: Will, who is Lyra’s symbolical Adam and the trilogy's second protagonist, and Lord Asriel, who is Marisa’s former lover and Lyra’s father. I will argue that both Lyra and Marisa undergo a softening process through the trilogy, starting out in unconventional female roles, but ending up in more traditional ones. Regarding Marisa, the main issues addressed will be how female sexuality is depicted and related to the gaining of power, how her role as a powerful woman contrasts to powerful male characters, Lord Asriel in particular, and how her personality changes as her latent maternal feelings come to surface. Thereafter, I will consider the meaning of the inversed Genesis narrative and contemplate Lyra’s maturity process, looking at how she adapts herself to Will, and argue that both Lyra and Will assume more conservative gender identities in the end. The mother and the patriarchy Power and motherhood are two central themes in His Dark Materials. In Marisa Coulter, we find the two concepts combined with femininity, making her the perfect candidate for a feminist analysis. Although the first description of Lyra’s mother announces her as seemingly “angelic” as well as “sweet and kind” (NL 42), we soon learn that this is just a deceitful appearance concealing her cold and ruthless nature. She is the perfect charlatan, because “[w]ho could doubt someone so charming, so well- connected, se sweet and reasonable?” (NL 317). She is the ego-centric beautiful femme- fatale and callous career woman, whose thirst for power seems endless. Facing the 2 Sundman hardships of gaining power in a patriarchal society, she both hides behind and uses her femininity in order to get power. The men do not have to try as hard to gain power. The word “powerful” is frequently used to describe several of the main male characters, and most notably Lyra’s father, Lord Asriel. When we are first introduced to Asriel, we find that he is “a tall man with powerful shoulders, a fierce dark face, and eyes that [seem] to flash and glitter with savage laughter. It [is] a face to be dominated by, or to fight: never a face to patronise or pity” (NL 17). He is presented with straightforward and exceedingly masculine characteristics, which he keeps throughout the story. He is depicted as strong, brave and utterly consumed by his ideological mission: destroying, what is illustrated as, the ancient dictatorship of God, in order to create the “Republic of Heaven” – which, though never really thoroughly explained, indicates democracy and freedom. A rebelling angel tells Mrs Coulter: if Asriel does not succeed in “destroying the tyranny at last”, then “we shall all be destroyed, and cruelty will reign for ever” (AS 822). Though Asriel is the leader of all those representing the good side, he is hard and pitiless, as he does not let anything stand in his way when it comes to reaching his goal – not the life of Lyra’s best friend Roger, whom he kills for the good cause, and, as it turns out, not even his own life. It is, Claire Squires points out, uncertain “whether Asriel is in fact a force for good or for evil” (60). His power seems infinite and innate, which is described, for example, when he is imprisoned by armoured bears1, who “had never met anything quite like Lord Asriel’s own haughty and imperious nature. He dominated even Iofur [the bear king]” (NL 307). Even to the witches his power seems supernatural, as one of the witches expresses in awe after witnessing Asriel’s massive fortress and war supplies: I think he must have been preparing for this for a long time, for aeons. He was preparing this before we were born, sisters, even though he is so much younger... But how can that be? I don’t know. I can’t understand. I think he commands time, he makes it run fast or slow according to his will. (SK 580). There are four other male characters in the trilogy, which, like Asriel, are described as “powerful” by the omniscient narrator (NL 101; SK 452, 614; AS 982) and their 1 Bears wearing armor, who, like people talk, and have their own society. 3 Sundman powerfulness is thus presented as a natural fact, rather than someone’s subjective opinion. Although Marisa Coulter is a female character that is also described as powerful, it seems that her power is not a natural trait, like it appears to be with the male characters; instead her power comes as a result of her eagerness to have it, which Lord Asriel tells his daughter: ...your mother’s always been ambitious for power. At first she tried to get it the normal way, through marriage, but that didn’t work... So she had to turn to the Church. Naturally she couldn’t take the route a man could have taken – priesthood and so on – it had to be unorthodox; she had to set up her own order, her own channels of influence and work through that.