It occurred to me that while I am taking for granted the fact that the three main couples in Good Omens are mirroring each other, a lot of people actually don’t know about it. So I decided to make a post gathering all the details on the matter that I could find in the show.
This meta was partly inspired by this postby@nitocrisss (I had this idea and couldn’t motivate myself to actually write it but your post helped a lot. Wahoo! :))
So, the theory is that Aziraphale-Anathema-Sergeant Shadwell on the one hand and, respectively, Crowley-Newt-Madame Tracy on the other are the characters that serve as each other’s mirrors in terms of their narrative arcs and, as we’ll see, even some aesthetics.
The first group of characters that I’m going to talk about are Aziraphale, Anathema and Sergeant Shadwell. How are they similar?
First of all, all of their lives are somehow connected to the Book and, in Aziraphale’s and Anathema’s case, to a woman speaking through it. For Aziraphale it’s the Bible and God; for Anathema, it’s the Nice and Accurate Prophecies and Agnes Nutter; for Shadwell, well, it’s not as straightforward, but he says that a witchfinder should have a book (the Bible, I assume) with him at all times, right? Anyway, their lives are driven by a very strict set of rules and The Higher Purpose, which they can’t disobey. Aziraphale can’t fail God’s plan:
Anathema can’t fail Agnes and is destined to stop the Apocalypse:
Anathema’s life is connected to prophecies and, as we know, collecting book of prophecy is Aziraphale’s greatest passion. Just like Aziraphale tries to contact God at a certain point, Anathema is talking about Agnes as if the latter one is alive and is still “consulting” her. Also, when she looses the book, she’s calling her mother via Skype.
Meanwhile Shadwell is fighting non-existent witches and, quite importantly:
@ouidamforemanreply: In the book Crowley/Aziraphale and Newt/Anathema also have these little scenes:
And these:
Which I noticed on my reread and thought were very cute
@moveslikebuckycomment: Just to add to your book connection - in the novel Shadwell has a dream where Agnes yells at him. I don’t remember the full details and I’m at work so can’t look them up but if you’d like I’ll find that bit when I get home ^_^
@joan-daardvarkreply: I checked the book and found an addition suggested by @moveslikebucky (thank you!) It’s an excerpt from Shadwell’s dream where he witnesses the execution of Agnes Nutter. As we see, she also communicated with him:
A witch, thinks Shadwell. They’re burning a witch. It gives him a warm feeling. That was the right and proper way of things. That’s how things were meant to be. Only … She looks directly up at him now, and says “That goes for yowe as welle, yowe daft old foole.” Only she is going to die. She is going to burn to death. And, Shadwell realizes in his dream, it is a horrible way to die. The flames lick higher. And the woman looks up. She is staring straight at him, invisible though he is. And she is smiling. And then it all goes boom.
Also, the book that Shadwell gave Newt for his mission in Tadfield was Prayers for Little Hands.
