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THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH THE DEVIL‘S PARTY: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE MILTONIC SATAN IN PHILIP PULLMAN‘S HIS DARK MATERIALS MICHAEL S. WEITZ Spring 2010 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a baccalaureate degree in English with honors in English Reviewed and approved* by the following: Laura L. Knoppers Professor of English Thesis Supervisor Janet W. Lyon Associate Professor of English Honors Adviser Sanford Schwartz Associate Professor of English Faculty Reader * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. i ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on Philip Pullman‘s young adult fantasy series, His Dark Materials, released between 1995 and 2000, and its connection to John Milton‘s Protestant epic Paradise Lost, published in 1667. In particular, it examines how Pullman utilizes Milton‘s figure of Satan. The Miltonic Satan has had a long history of critical analysis as well as a unique place in public discourse. Pullman uses the more modern reading of Satan as freedom fighter and epic hero as well as traditional views of Satan as a deceitful tempter. This thesis primarily examines the Satanic parallels in Pullman‘s Lord Asriel and Mary Malone, though it also analyzes Satanic traits in other Pullman characters. Ultimately, by not relying on any one interpretation of Satan, and by representing different aspects of the character in a wide range of figures in his own works, Pullman offers choice rather than demanding adherence to his own interpretation, aligning him closely with Milton himself. Pullman also argues that Satanic qualities – good and bad – have been disseminated not only amongst his cast of characters, but amongst the human race. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ―Tears Such as Angels Weep‖: Establishing Pullman‘s Sympathetic View of the Miltonic Satan 1 Asriel and Satan: Waging War On, and In, Heaven ....................................................................... 6 Playing the Serpent: Mary Malone as Satanic Temptress ............................................................ 14 ―A Universal Hubbub Wild‖: Pullman‘s Proliferation of Satanic Ideals ..................................... 21 ―The World Was All Before Them‖: Pullman‘s Satanic Dissemination ...................................... 28 1 “Tears Such as Angels Weep”: Establishing Pullman’s Sympathetic View of the Miltonic Satan Since its publication in 1667, John Milton‘s religious epic Paradise Lost has been a divisive text. The work has received high praise from literary luminaries ranging from contemporaries such as Andrew Marvell – who lauded its inclusion of ―Rebelling Angels, the Forbidden Tree, / Heav‘n, Hell, Earth, Chaos, All‖ (qtd. in Burt 47) – to figureheads of the Romantic period such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and especially William Blake. Yet the Romantics‘ praise for Paradise Lost focused on the character of Satan. The oft-quoted assertion by Blake that ―the Reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true poet and of the Devil‘s party without knowing it‖ (Blake 35) exemplifies the clash between two opposite ends of a spectrum. At one end is Blake, along with Shelley and their Romantic comrades, as well as many modern readers. This group views Satan as a figure both heroic and tragic, and holds him up as the true hero of Paradise Lost. The opposite end of the spectrum takes Milton‘s stated intent for his epic, to ―justify the ways of God to men‖ (I.26)1 more to heart. In order to explain Satan‘s seeming appeal, this group might agree with Stanley Fish‘s ―surprised by sin‖ hypothesis, which states that Milton crafts such an alluring Satan in order to ―trick‖ readers into sympathizing with the devil, leading to a shock when they realize how easily they have fallen into temptation2. These are, of course, two polarized views, representing two antithetical readings of the text. Philip Pullman, author of the young adult trilogy His Dark Materials, would seem to fall in the former camp. Together, the three novels in Pullman‘s trilogy form an anti-religious saga about two young children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, who embark on a journey which 1 All citations from Paradise Lost are taken from Milton, The Major Works, eds. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. 2 For more, see Fish, Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967. 2 eventually leads into a quest to save the multiverse from the cruel ―Authority‖, a clear analogue for God, and his regent, the Metatron. Pullman has acknowledged his debt to Milton on many occasions. Most obviously, the title of his trilogy is taken from the description of Chaos in Paradise Lost: ―But all these in their pregnant causes mixed / Confus‘dly, and which thus must ever fight / Unless the almighty maker them ordain / His dark materials to create more worlds‖ (II.913-916). The North American title of the first book in the series, The Golden Compass (known elsewhere as Northern Lights) is also based on a quote from Milton, again about creation: ―Then stayed the fervid wheels, and in his hand / He took the golden compasses, prepared / In God‘s eternal store, to circumscribe / This universe, and all created things‖ (VII.224-227). It comes as no surprise, then, that Pullman draws heavily upon Milton‘s Satan, the most well-known and controversial character in Paradise Lost. With the tone of the novels set by their anti-religious message, one might expect Pullman to display an unabashedly pro- Satan viewpoint in his trilogy. Yet despite Pullman‘s own assertion that ―I am of the Devil‘s party and know it‖ (de Bertodano), His Dark Materials does not represent an unmitigated Satanist reading of Paradise Lost. Rather, the various echoes of Milton‘s Satan present in Pullman‘s work lead to a far more complicated vision of the character. By dispersing Satanic qualities, both positive and negative, among his characters, both heroes and villains, Pullman shows that Satan, as presented by Milton, cannot simply be seen as a ―hero‖ or ―villain‖, as ―good‖ or ―evil‖. Rather, as with humans, Satan has characteristics that are both redeeming and damning. Not simply a blind supporter of Satan, Pullman is much more measured, taking care not merely to present a one- sided figure through his Satanic analogues in His Dark Materials. 3 Though many volumes have been written on Paradise Lost and lively critical discussion occurs over His Dark Materials, relatively little work has been done analyzing the two together. Some scholars read Pullman as taking a Blakean stance on Milton. Stephen Burt looks at representations of the Miltonic Satan in Pullman in his chapter ―‘Fighting Since Time Began‘: Milton and Satan in Philip Pullman‘s His Dark Materials.‖ The Romantics‘ understanding of the Satan character plays a major role in Burt‘s study. He argues that through Pullman‘s use of Satan, His Dark Materials ultimately becomes more strongly Miltonic, rather than (as might be thought of a work which casts Satan in a positive light) hostile to the highly religious Milton‘s intended meaning. Burton Hatlen likewise connects Milton and Pullman in his ―Pullman‘s His Dark Materials, a Challenge to the Fantasies of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis, with an Epilogue on Pullman‘s Neo-Romantic Reading of Paradise Lost.‖ In the essay, Hatlen compares Pullman‘s ―perspectives on Milton‘s epic‖ (84). He argues that Milton allows for multiple readings of his poem, stating that ―Paradise Lost reflect the tensions within Western culture at the moment of its creation, and as a result it lends itself to a variety of readings‖ (85). But like Burt, Hatlen views Pullman‘s trilogy through a Romantic lens, as ―a Blakean redaction of the Miltonic mythos, directed against the neo-Christian readings of Lewis and others‖ (86). Other scholars seem to be drawn to Pullman because they agree or disagree with his religious stance. Leonard Wheat takes the task of explicating His Dark Materials on his own shoulders in his book Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials – A Multiple Allegory: Attacking Religious Superstition in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Paradise Lost. Wheat seems to have an ulterior motive – he sides with Pullman very strongly in denouncing religion, taking every opportunity to do so. In addition, he lays out his views, on the text and otherwise, as hard and fast rules – as facts, essentially – and leaves no room for disagreement. Despite this, 4 however, Wheat‘s book is useful for the sheer detail he provides, examining nearly every character and event in His Dark Materials in searching for analogues to Paradise Lost and its themes. Others focus on questions of reading or on individual characters. In ―His Dark Materials, Paradise Lost, and the Common Reader,‖ Lauren Shohet‘s interest lies less on either text and more on the reader response to the interplay between them. Her notion of ―dissenting reading,‖ however, seems extremely Satanic, for what does Paradise Lost‘s Satan do but dissent from the Father‘s ―reading‖ of what is fair and just in Heaven? Shohet argues that the creation of such a layered text is Pullman‘s goal, and that, ultimately, this is both Pullman‘s and Milton‘s intention. Of Paradise Lost, she writes that ―the multiplicity visible in the poem‘s fabric lets readers imagine ‗it happened this way and that way‘: Yahwist and Priestly, Eve‘s version and Adam‘s, the narrator‘s sympathy for God‘s and for the devil‘s party‖ (Shohet 64). Ludmilla Miteva- Roussanova, in ―Dreaming of Eve: Milton versus Pullman‖, focuses primarily on Pullman‘s character of Lyra and her connection to Milton‘s Eve, with whom she is explicitly connected in the text of His Dark Materials.

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