The Golden Compass Lesson Plan

What do you think of Mrs. Coulter as a character? Does book condemn her lifestyle or not being a scholar?

Mrs. Coulter is a villain, no doubt about it. But does her villainous status demonize some of her other traits and behaviors? Some may read Mrs. Coulter as a villain along the archetypal lines of Cruella DeVille or Professor Umbridge: hyper-feminine, ruthlessly ambitious, and preying upon the most innocent and vulnerable. Some critics have noted that this trope demonizes traditional femininity by aligning it with evil, vanity and superficiality. Indeed, Mrs. Coulter is one of the only women we've seen in the novel so far, and she is by far the most traditionally...