Exploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials by Lois H. Gresh

Author:Lois H. Gresh [Gresh, Lois H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group
Published: 2007-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

7

THE AFTERLIFE: HELL, HARPIES, AND HEAVEN

Philip Pullman introduces us to his world of the dead in the third novel of His Dark Materials. It’s in The Amber Spyglass that we encounter the ghosts of all dead people and the land of no return, where death prevails over a bleak landscape. The world of the dead is also called the land of the dead interchangeably in His Dark Materials.

As soon as we open The Amber Spyglass, Roger is calling to Lyra from the world of the dead, which is described as a vast plain of bare earth with no light, a black sky, and mist everywhere. When a person dies, his body is gone forever, his daemon dies with it, but his ghost lives on in the world of the dead. “This was the end of all places and the last of all worlds” (The Amber Spyglass, opening).

Later, the angel Balthamos explains that the world of the dead is a prison camp created by the Authority long ago. Baruch adds that the countless millions of people, kings and paupers alike, are in the world of the dead as ghosts, but that, fortunately, Balthamos spared the ghost of Baruch such eternal misery. So apparently not all ghosts of dead people dwell in the world of the dead: Angels are able to pardon the ghosts of some.

Later, Will and Lyra discuss how to get into the world of the dead to find Roger and save him. Lyra determines that Will can use the subtle knife to carve a window into the world of the dead. But the two children worry about their daemons, or souls, which fade away when people die. What will happen to Lyra’s daemon if she enters the world of the dead? Yet the alethiometer tells her that she and Will must go there and rescue Roger, so they decide to take their chances.

After a long trek, Will, Lyra, and the two Gallivespians, Tialys and Salmakia, come to a village, which they think is the world of the dead. Everywhere are the ghosts of people who have just died. “The edges of things were losing their definition and becoming blurred. The color was slowly seeping out of the world” (The Amber Spyglass, page 248). The ghosts in the village are afraid of Will and Lyra. They’re not at all fearsome like the ghosts we think of in our own reality. Instead, these ghosts are stumbling, unaware of their destination but dragging behind one another in an endless trail toward … something.

Following the endless trail of frightened ghosts, Will, Lyra, Tialys, and Salmakia arrive at an ancient refugee camp that borders a vast lake covered in mist. By the time they reach the camp, the ghosts are in trances, much like zombies. A man tells Will and Lyra that they must leave immediately, that this place is only for the dead; it is a port of transit for the ghosts, who will travel to the world of the dead by boat (The Amber Spyglass, pages 250–254).

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