Dust (His Dark Materials) - Dust As A Symbol of Knowledge

Dust As A Symbol of Knowledge

His Dark Materials is widely recognised as an anti-Christian work. Some of its anti-religious material is overt, but most is covert, hidden in symbolism. Most of the symbolism takes the form of three intertwined allegories. Like all allegories, these use surface story characters and events to symbolise characters and events in other narratives. In Pullman's case, the other narratives are

1. C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,
2. John Milton's Paradise Lost,
3. an original Pullman tale about conflict between Charles Darwin and Christian missionaries. Dust relates to the second and third narratives.

Pullman's allegories are tied together by surface story symbolism depicting warfare between knowledge and religious superstition. These two entities are respectively symbolised by

1. golden dust that drifts down from the sky onto adults
2. ghostly "spectres" that devour the minds of adults while leaving the body unharmed.

In the surface story's climax, Lyra (the heroine, symbolising Satan's Paradise Lost daughter, Sin) and Will (symbolising Cain, son of Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost) eat some "little red fruits" packed in a lunch for them by Mary (symbolising the serpent-tempter in the Paradise Lost allegory and Charles Darwin, bringer of knowledge, in the Darwin allegory). The fruits symbolize the Forbidden Fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, fruit that God forbade Adam and Eve to eat. In the original Genesis story and the parallel Paradise Lost story, two things happen. First, Adam and Eve acquire knowledge, which is forbidden by God. Second, they are ejected from the Garden of Eden, where ignorance must prevail. Their ejection is known in Christian theology as The Fall. The reason for their ejection is that they are guilty of Original Sin, which amounts to the acquisition of knowledge.

Parallel events in His Dark Materials symbolise the two events in the Genesis/Paradise Lost story. First, Lyra lives up to the name of the Paradise Lost character she symbolises (Sin) by reenacting the Bible's act of Original Sin: she eats the symbolised Forbidden Fruit, thereby obtaining knowledge. Will eats too. Their eating the "little red fruits" causes golden dust — knowledge — to suddenly begin drifting down on them. They have symbolically eaten from the Tree of Knowledge; they are drenched in knowledge. Second, they Fall in love. The new Fall (Falling in love) symbolizes the original Fall of Christian doctrine — ejection from Eden, where ignorance must prevail.

When this climactic event occurs — when knowledge begins pouring into the world (as it did when Darwin published his theory of evolution) — the Church falls into disarray and decline.