Analysis of Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Analysis of Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman’s novel, Northern Lights, offers an impressive

alternative reality which has similarities with the present day, and

differences too. The story starts in Jordan College in Oxford but it

is an Oxford unlike ours: the technology and the culture of the people

give the impression that it is set in the late 19th century. It is a

fundamentally different universe in several respects - most evidently,

all humans have dæmons. The main character in the story is young girl

called Lyra Belacqua. She is a half-wild, half-civilized girl left

among the Jordan College scholars by chance. Her dæmon, Pantalaimon,

frequently takes the shape of a brown moth or an ermine.

Every person is accompanied throughout their life by a dæmon, which

takes the form of some kind of animal. Those of children can switch

forms at will, but as they grow older this happens less and less, and

at puberty the dæmon fixes into a single form for the rest of the

person's life. This form tends to reflect the personality and nature

of the person, but sometimes, a dæmon’s personality counters their

human’s in some ways. For instance, if a person was highly dependant

on others, their dæmon might strive to show them their independent

side. Dæmons cannot change once a person hits puberty because as

people get older the age of innocence disappears. When people mature

they get a sense of who they are and have the ability to reason and

think for themselves. Although the book is fantasy, this is true for

humans in the present day.

A dæmon cannot move more than a few yards away from its human without

both of them experienc...

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...rough humans. This is particularly evident at the

end of the book where he uses the interactions of dæmons to show the

feelings between Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter. The two dæmons show a

strong passionate engagement, allowing the reader to see the animal

instincts of Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter:

‘The monkey’s tail was erect, the snow leopard’s swept powerfully from

side to side. Then the monkey reached out a tentative paw, the leopard

lowered her head with a graceful sensual acknowledgment, they touched’

(p393/4).

To conclude, in Northern Lights, Pullman captures the readers’

imagination in a dramatic way by using dæmons to give information. He

has discovered a most novel and ingenious way of showing the

ambiguities and complexity of character, motivation and behaviour and

achieved an immense degree of success.