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Anathema Device
Newt is a young man who, tired of his boring job as a wages clerk, takes a job with Shadwell and the Witchfinder’s Army (WA). Newt joins the WA because he desperately wants a cause to believe in—his previous attempts to find religion or even a social cause to fight for have all ended with him feeling disillusioned. And to a degree, Newt is disappointed with what life as Witchfinder Private Pulsifer entails, as he spends his weekends poring through daily papers for mentions of witches or unexplainable phenomena. But Newt soon finds that he adores and admires Shadwell, though he finds Shadwell mentally unstable, and so he decides to stick with the WA. When he’s not working for the WA, Newt spends his time working on his beloved Wasabi, a Japanese car that constantly breaks down. On the day that Armageddon (the end of the world) is supposed to take place, Newt convinces Shadwell to let him drive to Tadfield to investigate suspiciously normal weather. This sets off a string of events prophesied by 17th-century witch Agnes Nutter. Newt is the descendent of Witchfinder General Thou-Shalt-Not-Commit-Adultery Pulsifer, the person who executed Agnes for witchcraft—and in Tadfield, Newt joins forces and falls in love with Agnes’s descendent, Anathema Device. Newt tries to be sensible, so he finds it hard to believe that Agnes foretold his and Anathema’s meeting, as well as Armageddon. He only believes once he learns that Agnes correctly predicted that he and Anathema would have sex before Armageddon. Wanting to impress Anathema, Newt tells her that he’s a computer engineer—but in reality, although Newt loves computers, he’s hopeless when it comes to electronics. His lie comes out at the Lower Tadfield Air Base, when Anathema tasks him with undoing the damage that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse did to the computer systems. Fortunately, though, Newt manages to “break” the systems enough to stop a multinational nuclear war. Following Armageddon, it’s implied that Newt and Anathema will marry, as Newt receives a box from Agnes addressed to Mr. and Mrs. Pulsifer.
Newton “Newt” Pulsifer Quotes in Good Omens
The Good Omens quotes below are all either spoken by Newton “Newt” Pulsifer or refer to Newton “Newt” Pulsifer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Friday
Quotes
“I thought the churches...” Newt began.
“Pah!” said Shadwell. [...] “Churches? What good did they ever do? They’m just as bad. Same line o’ business, nearly. You can’t trust them to stamp out the Evil One, ‘cos if they did, they’d be out o’ that line o’ business. If yer goin’ up against a tiger, ye don’t want fellow travelers whose idea of huntin’ is tae throw meat at it. Nay, lad. It’s up to us. Against the darkness.”
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Saturday
Quotes
“Tye yt well,” she said to the astonished witchfinder. And then, as the villagers sidled toward the pyre, she raised her handsome head in the firelight and said, “Gather ye ryte close, goode people. Come close untyl the fire near scorch ye, for I charge ye that alle must see how thee last true wytch in England dies. For wytch I am, for soe I am judgéd, yette I knoe not what my true Cryme may be. And therefore let myne death be a messuage to the worlde. Gather ye ryte close, I saye, and marke well the fate of alle who meddle with such as theye do notte understande.”
And, apparently, she smiled and looked up at the sky over the village and added, “That goes for you as welle, yowe daft old foole.”
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“You see, it’s not enough to know what the future is. You have to know what it means. Agnes was like someone looking at a huge picture down a tiny little tube. She wrote down what seemed like good advice based on what she understood of the tiny little glimpses.”
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1111. An the Great Hound sharl coom, and the Two Powers sharl watch in Vane, for it Goeth where is its Master, where they Wot Notte, and he sharl name it, True to Ittes Nature, and Hell sharl flee it.
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Newton “Newt” Pulsifer Quotes in Good Omens
The Good Omens quotes below are all either spoken by Newton “Newt” Pulsifer or refer to Newton “Newt” Pulsifer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Friday
Quotes
“I thought the churches...” Newt began.
“Pah!” said Shadwell. [...] “Churches? What good did they ever do? They’m just as bad. Same line o’ business, nearly. You can’t trust them to stamp out the Evil One, ‘cos if they did, they’d be out o’ that line o’ business. If yer goin’ up against a tiger, ye don’t want fellow travelers whose idea of huntin’ is tae throw meat at it. Nay, lad. It’s up to us. Against the darkness.”
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Saturday
Quotes
“Tye yt well,” she said to the astonished witchfinder. And then, as the villagers sidled toward the pyre, she raised her handsome head in the firelight and said, “Gather ye ryte close, goode people. Come close untyl the fire near scorch ye, for I charge ye that alle must see how thee last true wytch in England dies. For wytch I am, for soe I am judgéd, yette I knoe not what my true Cryme may be. And therefore let myne death be a messuage to the worlde. Gather ye ryte close, I saye, and marke well the fate of alle who meddle with such as theye do notte understande.”
And, apparently, she smiled and looked up at the sky over the village and added, “That goes for you as welle, yowe daft old foole.”
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Explanation and Analysis:
“You see, it’s not enough to know what the future is. You have to know what it means. Agnes was like someone looking at a huge picture down a tiny little tube. She wrote down what seemed like good advice based on what she understood of the tiny little glimpses.”
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
1111. An the Great Hound sharl coom, and the Two Powers sharl watch in Vane, for it Goeth where is its Master, where they Wot Notte, and he sharl name it, True to Ittes Nature, and Hell sharl flee it.
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