The last page of Philip Pullman's 'The Amber Spyglass' holds his acknowledgement of 'Paradise Lost'; a poem of epic proportions (twelve books in total) about the fall of man and his banishment from the garden of Eden. Milton's great work, and the works of his illustrationist William Blake, has inspired many memorable titles in their turn; Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' to name but one.

However, while Shelley concentrated on the creation of man, and in particular the verses:

"Did I request thee, Maker, from thy clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me? --"

Pullman is interested in the motives of Satan, the actual banishment of Adam and Eve, and the symbolism of Eden.

Although Milton wrote 'Paradise Lost' to "justify the ways of God to men", the result was quite the opposite. It is his Satan who can claim all the convincing speeches, not his God. Pullman has drawn on this theme, using it to express his distaste and disrespect not only for the Church, but for all kinds of authority. Pullman also explores many other themes which are merely mentioned in 'Paradise Lost', for example the other world idea:

"Space may produce new worlds; whereof so rife
There went a fame in Heav'n that he ere long
Intended to create..."

One may ask, in fact, where inspiration ends and plagiarism begins.

Although Milton aimed to justify God, he clearly found himself empathizing with the figure of Satan more than with the cold, distanced motives of the divine. Satan, like humans, was banished from a sublime paradise, and perhaps it is this accessibility which caused Pullman to resurrect Satan as a mortal - Lord Asriel (although our distance from him is maintained; we never learn Lord Asriel's first name).

The other twist which Pullman put on characters was that on his Adam and Eve (Will Parry and Lyra Belacqua), by making them children. In many ways, both 'Paradise Lost' and 'His Dark Materials' are bildungsromans (stories during the course of which a child, or a number of children, mature), which may be compared to the American novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird', to name but one. Although Milton's Adam and Eve are created initially as adults, they have the minds of children until their fall. This compares beautifully with Lyra's growing maturity over the course of the trilogy, and her final fall when she places the piece of Mulefa fruit in Will's mouth.

However, the ending of 'Paradise Lost' differs vastly from that of 'His Dark Materials' in the fate of the lovers, and one may ask which is the more poignant. While Lyra and Will choose to live a separated life, Adam chooses to eat the cursed apple because he cannot bear to live, even in Eden, without Eve:

"How can I live without thee, how forgo
Thy sweet Converse and Love so dearly join'd,
To live again in these wild Woods forlorn?..."

For Milton's Adam, love takes priority over everything, even paradise and the threat of death. Whether this is noble of him, or merely selfish, is not for us to decide. Fundamentally, it was a decision based on himself alone, as was Lyra’s, Will’s and as we all make decisions based on ourselves, little realising how we affect the lives of others by our own actions.

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