Marisa Coulter - Relationships With Lyra and Lord Asriel

Relationships With Lyra and Lord Asriel

In the beginning of the book The Northern Lights Marisa Coulter seems to have a keen interest in Lyra. It is then revealed that Coulter is in fact Lyra's mother by her love affair with Lord Asriel (her title of "Mrs." comes from her widowed marriage to Edward Coulter, who died before the events in the book.) In the book Northern Lights it is stated by John Faa that she fell in love with Asriel as soon as they met. Although throughout most of the series Lyra hates and fears her mother, it is noted in the books that Mrs Coulter repeatedly saves Lyra.

At the beginning of The Northern Lights Mrs. Coulter saved Lyra from the Gobblers by taking her out of Oxford, and nearing the end of The Northern Lights, Mrs. Coulter yet again saves Lyra from having her daemon cut away (a process known as intercision.) A distraught Mrs. Coulter cries out for Lyra, and Lyra passes out. When Lyra suddenly opens her eyes again, she is lying in a soft, comfortable bed with a recovering Pan at her side. Mrs. Coulter immediately reassures Lyra she's safe and, on her daughter's instruction, explains to her gently why children have to be intercised at such a young age, commenting on their "unhappy thoughts and feelings". When Lyra asks why Mrs. Coulter herself saved her, Mrs. Coulter eventually reveals that she is, in fact Lyra's mother. Mrs. Coulter also struggles with her identity of being Lyra's mother due to her attachment to the church. She is then forced to make choice between Lyra and the church when it is revealed that Lyra is the new "Eve" whose death will be sought by the Church to prevent original sin re-entering the world. Coulter then chooses to save Lyra from the Magisterium at the end of The Subtle Knife, taking her to a cave and keeping her drugged there at the beginning of The Amber Spyglass.