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Annotated by:
- Clark, Mark
- Date of entry: Sep-13-2016
- Last revised: Sep-13-2016
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.”
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
Commentary
“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.