Summary

The speaker of this dramatic monologue in prose is an archangel.  He attempts to tell his listeners—mortals, presumably—of the beauty to be treasured in the extraordinary ordinary of the everyday world.  The Archangel speaks in nothing less than glorious diction, baroque syntax, and enchanting rhythm: he labors, rhetorically, to communicate in a language congruent with the complex, extravagant beauty of the world he describes.  He pleads with his audience to listen to him and share in the profound aesthetic experience so readily available—but he pleads to no avail: his audience will not listen.  In response to his audience's attempted departure, the Archangel implores, “Wait.  Listen.  I will begin again.”

Commentary

This piece invites readers into the contemplation of possessing an awareness of beauty, wanting to be able to share that awareness of and the joys of it, yet not being able to.  Indeed, the attempt to share the experience of awe may turn others away, leaving the visionary terribly alone.  We may sense that Updike is giving voice to the plight of the artist who wishes passionately that he or she could share a vision of the world’s beauty but persistently falls short in the attempt.  Physicians, though, could resonate with the helplessness and frustration dramatized here.  What is it like to have a considerable understanding for the marvels of the body and be unable to share the experience of the beauty found there—even with those one cares most about?  And what is it like to be certain of the path a patient should take—a path one knows leads to health and happiness—and find that the patient refuses to listen?  What is it like to have to say those words, “Wait.  Listen.  I will begin again” over and over?  In a broader sense, though—in relation to colleagues, students, subordinates, sons and daughters, people you care deeply about—what is it like to know with certainty a path that the beloved could take to find fulfillment, and to have the beloved reject your insight and turn away from you, your wisdom, and your voice?  

“Archangel” urges us beyond this contemplation, though.  It does so by means of something the Archangel says—something that appears both problematic and instructive.  “There is no harm in me; no,” he says as his audience is about to leave him.  “Stay.  Praise me.  Your praise of me is praise of yourself; wait.”  There is something blasphemous in these urgent imperatives: an Archangel should call for praise of God, not of himself; nor should he encourage self-praise of others.  Such is the destiny of creatures, perhaps—human or angelic—who would presume to know too much about others’ paths to happiness.  The desire for union with the divine turns into the desire to be God, and the voice of one seeking such stature rings hollow.
 

Like “Lifeguard” (see annotation in the database), “Archangel” amounts to the inverse of an ekphrasis, where Updike presents readers with the portrait of an Archangel that has yet to exist on canvas.  That portrait appears to be less the representation of a supernatural being than a projection of our human desires: the cultural construct of Archangel.  Hoping to be the glorious messengers of God and giving voice to the remarkable beauty and possibilities of life, we lay claim to presumably transcendent insight, speak it with the expectation that others will love us for doing so, and alienate those we cherish most in the process.  “Archangel” encourages a contemplation of this dialectic—in a progression that paradoxically turns back on itself, is doomed to begin again and again, and go nowhere.

Primary Source

Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories

Publisher

Knopf

Publisher

Knopf

Place Published

New York

Place Published

New York

Page Count

10

Page Count

3