The Wonderful Visit · Chapter
V: The Hunting of the Strange Bird (Continued) explained
The Vicar, hunting the strange bird on the moor, shoots down what he thought was a bird but turns out to be a beautiful youth with iridescent wings—the Angel.
What happens
The Vicar, hunting the strange bird on the moor, shoots down what he thought was a bird but turns out to be a beautiful youth with iridescent wings—the Angel. The Angel, wounded and in agony, realizes he is in the Land of Dreams and encounters a man for the first time.
Themes in this chapter
Innocence vs. Experience
The Angel's first encounter with human violence and pain marks a fall from innocence into experience.
The Universality of Suffering
The Angel's agonizing injury and cry of superhuman agony introduce suffering to a being previously untouched by it.
The Fragility of Wonder
The beautiful, iridescent wings of the Angel are broken and fade to grey, symbolizing the destruction of wonder by human action.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“There was a scream of superhuman agony, the wings beat the air twice, and the victim came slanting swiftly downward and struck the ground—a struggling heap of writhing body, broken wing and flying bloodstained plumes—upon the turfy slope behind.”
The Angel screamed in pain, flapped its wings, and crashed to the ground, a mess of broken body and bloody feathers.
Describes the moment the Angel is shot and falls.
“Never had the Vicar seen such gorgeous floods of colour, not stained glass windows, not the wings of butterflies, not even the glories of crystals seen between prisms, no colours on earth could compare with them.”
The Vicar was awestruck by the Angel's wings, more beautiful than any earthly colors he had ever seen.
Highlights the Vicar's wonder at the Angel's beauty before it fades.