The Arrangement: An Essay
This is just a quick gander into the way the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley progresses in Good Omens throughout the book, probably in not too eloquent a format.
What strikes me is that at the beginning, it is portrayed as very much a matter of necessity/convenience rather than emotional fulfillment: "they wouldn't have chosen each other ( Read more... )
Just want to add a few comments and, since it appears that the last person to whom I loaned the book kept it, I apologise in advance as I'm quoting the novel from internet sources.
In a very blunt nutshell, Aziraphale thinks Crowley is evil.
This is one of Aziraphale's humanizing characteristics: he feels morally superior (holier-than-thou, actually) about not not having Fallen himself. The description of Crowley's Fall as a "vaguely downward saunter" is not only mitigation by the authors of his demonic status but reveals the essential fragility of Aziraphale's simplistic view of things. While it appears that Crowley was a less than enthusiastic participant in the Rebellion of Lucifer's Angels, Aziraphale's conduct as Angel of the Eastern Gate indicates an attitude toward his Fallen brethren as rather more piously disapproving than vengeful.
The reader is treated to a more rounded view of Crowley and demons in general.
I am fascinated both as a writer and as a reader in those techniques that make a bad guy into a sympathetic protagonist. Milton did it so well with Lucifer in Paradise Lost that Blake famously remarked that Milton "...was of the devil's party without knowing" and Shelley agreed that "Milton gives the Devil all imaginable advantage".
Their likable depiction of Crowley makes it readily apparent that Pratchett and Gaiman are also of the devil's party - though definitely not of The Devil's party. While Paradise Lost depicts a hierarchical universe with God and the angels as having greater power than Lucifer, the other fallen angels and the denizens of the earth, Good Omens takes a humanistic stance and places a value on human nature that is equal to divine and hellish powers. The Angels of Heav'n and Demons in Hell are made into bureaucratic supporters of extreme factions that are so preoccupied with their own squabbles that they would destroy Creation without a second thought. Aziraphale and Crowley become the default protectors of Creation precisely because neither of them ever completely bought into the propaganda of the sides to which they nominally belong and ironically, in never having done so, are probably (though not certainly) doing a more perfect job of following God’s Will.
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