In Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials', it said that there was a prophesy that Lyra would be the new Eve?

Question

And that Mary Malone would be her temptress. Was she? How exactly was Lyra tempted? Having finished the trilogy, I was left with the feeling that I must have missed something.

Lyra resisting the temptation to leave the 'windows' open so she could be with Will - was that the decision that saved the world? It wasn't just her decision though - even if she wanted to, Will wouldn't agree, would he?

Answer 1

Mary Malone tells Lyra and Will the story of how she gave up being a nun to experience love, after connecting with a man on holiday and recalling the love she felt when she was younger and a boy she had danced with gently fed her marzipan. Even as Mary is telling the story Lyra can feel something change within her. It affects her deeply, opening up a part of her she wasn't aware existed. Then later, when they are alone, Lyra holds up fruit to Will's lips, in a reenactment of the Original Sin, making her the second Eve. Will understands what she means by offering him the fruit and they admit they are in love. As soon as they kiss Dust swarms around them - they have lost their 'innocence' as the General Oblation Board view it. Will and Lyra's actions cause the Dust to fall downwards again, as required by the wheel-trees - they've changed the Mulefa's world. Thus Mary is the temptress, or serpent, because she tempts Lyra to think about Will in a new, more adult, way through means of her marzipan story.

Answer 2

I've just finished it too and I agree with you. Mary Malone didn't tempt them to do anything. They had to make a heartbreaking decision to live apart in different realities, but no one coerced them into it, they did what was best for everyone else.

It was a sect of the Magisterium (the Church), called the Consistorial Court, who thought Lyra and Will were the next Eve and Adam. and who thought that Mary Malone was playing Serpent tempting Eve into Original Sin. It is they who send an assassin called Father Gomez to kill Lyra. Maybe they were just completely wrong about all that.

I haven't read Milton's 'Paradise Lost'. Maybe everything might be clearer if I had.

Answer 3

Mary telling her story about her past (and failed romance) is seen at the temptation.

Lyra then starts her relationship with Will (albeit a rather brief one).

not a great explanation, but I read it a while ago, sorry.

Answer 4

hmm, call it that unknown answer, sorry.