The Golden Compass Morality and Ethics Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"The consequence was a great lawsuit. Your father en't the kind of man to deny or conceal the truth, and it left the judge with a problem. He'd killed all right, he'd shed blood, but he was defending his home and his child against an intruder. On t'other hand, the law allows any man to avenge the violation of his wife, and the dead man's lawyers argued that he were doing just that." (7.98)

Lord Asriel's actions are morally questionable: he kills a man, though it is permitted by the law. Are his actions right or wrong?

Quote #5

"Don't you dare laugh! I'll tear your lungs out if you laugh at him! That's all he had to cling onto, just an old dried fish, that's all he had for a daemon to love and be kind to! Who's took it from him? Where's it gone?"

Pantalaimon was a snarling snow leopard, just like Lord Asriel's daemon, but she didn't see that; all she saw was right and wrong. (11.56-57)

Lyra has a bit of a freakout when Tony's fish is taken from him. Why? How does she know the difference between right and wrong?

Quote #6

One of the men was holding Pantalaimon.

He had seized Lyra's daemon in his human hands, and poor Pan was shaking, nearly out of his mind with horror and disgust. His wildcat shape, his fur now dull with weakness, now sparking glints of anbaric alarm.... He curved toward his Lyra as she reached with both hands for him. . .

They fell still. They were captured.

She felt those hands.... It wasn't allowed.... Not supposed to touch.... Wrong.... (16.99-102)

Lyra instinctively knows that it's wrong for another person to touch her daemon; it's not something she had to be taught.