Professor Weston
Professor Weston (full name Edward Rolles Weston) is arguably one of C.S Lewis' greatest satanic characters. An eminent physicist on earth, he first appears in Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet which is the first in Lewis' 'Cosmic Trilogy' of science fiction books. He is beaten by the 'hero' of the book, Elwin Ransom, and the Oyarsa (which seems to mean something like ruling angel, or ruling power) or Mars (known to the inhabitants as Malacandra), but returns in the second book of the trilogy in an attempt to wreak havoc on Perelandra (Venus), the 'new Eden'. What occurs there is related below.
*SPOILER WARNING*
If you continue beyond this point, you will find spoilers to the plots of Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy.
You have been warned.
Abduction to Mars
In his first appearance, Weston is attempting to abduct a mentally impaired youngster to Mars as, it later transpires, a human sacrifice. Or so he thinks. Upon meeting the accidental 'hero' of the book, the main character Elwin Ransom, he changes his mind and decides Ransom will do just as well and, releasing the boy, kidnaps Ransom instead.
Gold-digging in Deep Heaven (aka, Outer Space)
On arrival on Malacandra, Weston reveals to Ransom that he (Ransom) has been brought as a human sacrifice of sorts, and begins, with his accomplice, Dick Devine (who later becomes known as Lord Feverstone, see That Hideous Strength, begins to drag Ransom to a towering distant figure making its way across the lake to meet them. However, as is the nature of life, an accident occurs, in the form of a dangerous fish-type animal in the water breaking Ransom's captors' concentration, and allowing him to flee. In the course of his adventures on Malacandra, Ransom learns that the Seroni, the creatures to whom he was to be 'sacrificed', wanted only to speak with one of his kind. That is, a human. Weston, however, is of such a paranoid bent, that he can not conceive of another creature not wishing to do him harm.
Colonising Eden, in the name of the (un)Holy Spirit
Weston's sudden appearance on Perelandra is a great surprise to Ransom, who is, once again, the accidental hero of the piece. However, Weston has undergone some changes since his last appearance. Perhaps the most notable, and certainly the most important, change is that he no longer wants to spread 'the human race', but to spread 'spirituality'. In his understanding of Spirituality, Weston has come to the fatal misunderstanding (misunderstanding from the Christian view, that is, other faiths may see him as entirely correct, and good luck to them) that God and the Devil are one, and calls God and the Devil into him. The Devil, it would appear, can't resist an open door into a soul, and from that moment on, Professor E.R. Weston effectively ceases to be.
Death of a great physicist (or his body, at least)
Weston's animated corpse continues to make a considerable nuisance of itself, tempting the Lady of Perelandra (the new Eve) into corruption, while Ransom tries to undo the damage the Unman (Ransom's name for Weston's animated body) is making. Eventually Ransom realises that words simply aren't enough, and takes the struggle to the physical level, and attacks the Unman outright.
During the ensuing struggle Weston re-surfaces occasionally, or appears to, but how much of that is really him and how much is the devil's manufacturing is impossible to tell. Indeed, Ransom (and, presumably by extension, Lewis) come to the conclusion that:
'...it made little difference. There was, no doubt, a confusion of persons in damnation: what Pantheists falsely hoped of Heaven bad men really received in Hell. They were melted down into their Master, as a lead soldier slips down and loses his shape in the lade held over the gas ring. The question whether Satan, or one whom Satan has digested, is acting on any given occasion, has in the long run no clear significance. In the meantime the great thing was not to be tricked again.'
Weston's body is eventually killed outright by Ransom in the tunnels beneath Perelandra's only fixed land, and rolled into the lava just to be on the safe side.
Ransom, having carved a monument to the great physicist into the wall on the outside of the caverns, leaves the innards of Perelandra behind him, and makes his way up the Fixed Land, to meet the angels, and the rest of his adventure.
But that is another story, and shall be told another time...
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