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Lyra
The primary antagonist of the novel. It's never stated how old Mrs. Coulter is, but she looks young and is extremely beautiful, with pale skin and dark hair. Her dæmon, a golden monkey, is similarly beautiful. She's both glamorous and alluring, which, according to Lord Asriel, makes her the obvious person for the Magisterium to let study Dust and use children as test subjects. In addition to being able to trick the children into coming with her willingly, her alluring nature means that people are far less likely to take issue with the unethical things she does via the General Oblation Board. Lyra is similarly entranced by Mrs. Coulter and her glamorous lifestyle, and so agrees to go live with her. However, Mrs. Coulter eventually shows Lyra that she doesn't intend to take Lyra to the North, as promised, and instead seems to want Lyra to just be a beautiful pet. Lyra later learns that Mrs. Coulter is actually her mother, and after her affair with Lord Asriel and Lyra's subsequent birth led to Lord Asriel killing Mr. Coulter, Mrs. Coulter decided she wanted nothing to do with Lyra. Once Lyra begins to see through Mrs. Coulter's glamour, Mrs. Coulter begins to look terrifying and evil. She and her dæmon are cruel and controlling; doctors at Bolvanger talk about the savage pleasure Mrs. Coulter seems to get from watching children undergo intercision. Mrs. Coulter also proves herself to be extremely hypocritical—she insists that intercision is a good thing and that Dust is bad, but both Lyra and Mrs. Coulter know that intercision on children in particular isn't safe or beneficial, as it causes patients to die. Mrs. Coulter simply doesn't care about the children who undergo the procedure. Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel reunite after Lord Asriel opens up a bridge to a parallel universe. Though the two are still clearly in love, Mrs. Coulter refuses to accompany Lord Asriel to the other universe.
Mrs. Coulter Quotes in The Golden Compass
The The Golden Compass quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Coulter or refer to Mrs. Coulter. 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:
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Chapter Four
Quotes
Mrs. Coulter came into the bathroom to wash Lyra's hair, and she didn't rub and scrape like Mrs. Lonsdale either. She was gentle. Pantalaimon watched with powerful curiosity until Mrs. Coulter looked at him, and he knew what she meant and turned away, averting his eyes modestly from these feminine mysteries as the golden monkey was doing. He had never had to look away from Lyra before.
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Chapter Seventeen
Quotes
"If he's got Dust and you've got Dust, and the Master of Jordan and every other grownup's got Dust, it must be all right. When I get out I'm going to tell all the kids in the world about this. Anyway, if it was so good, why'd you stop them doing it to me? If it was good, you should've let them do it. You should have been glad."
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Chapter Twenty-One
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"She guessed that the two things that happen in adolescence might be connected: the change in one's dæmon and the fact that Dust began to settle. Perhaps if the dæmon were separated from the body, we might never be subject to Dust—to original sin."
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Chapter Twenty-Three
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"We've heard them all talk about Dust, and they're so afraid of it, and you know what? We believed them, even though we could see that what they were doing was wicked and evil and wrong...We thought Dust must be bad too, because they were grown up and they said so. But what if it isn't? What if it's—"
She said breathlessly, "Yeah! What if it's really good..."
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Mrs. Coulter Quotes in The Golden Compass
The The Golden Compass quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Coulter or refer to Mrs. Coulter. 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:
).
Chapter Four
Quotes
Mrs. Coulter came into the bathroom to wash Lyra's hair, and she didn't rub and scrape like Mrs. Lonsdale either. She was gentle. Pantalaimon watched with powerful curiosity until Mrs. Coulter looked at him, and he knew what she meant and turned away, averting his eyes modestly from these feminine mysteries as the golden monkey was doing. He had never had to look away from Lyra before.
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Chapter Seventeen
Quotes
"If he's got Dust and you've got Dust, and the Master of Jordan and every other grownup's got Dust, it must be all right. When I get out I'm going to tell all the kids in the world about this. Anyway, if it was so good, why'd you stop them doing it to me? If it was good, you should've let them do it. You should have been glad."
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Chapter Twenty-One
Quotes
"She guessed that the two things that happen in adolescence might be connected: the change in one's dæmon and the fact that Dust began to settle. Perhaps if the dæmon were separated from the body, we might never be subject to Dust—to original sin."
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Chapter Twenty-Three
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"We've heard them all talk about Dust, and they're so afraid of it, and you know what? We believed them, even though we could see that what they were doing was wicked and evil and wrong...We thought Dust must be bad too, because they were grown up and they said so. But what if it isn't? What if it's—"
She said breathlessly, "Yeah! What if it's really good..."
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