the depiction of man at the mercy of woman whose strong and central The Messenger, – physical presence is a striking contrast to the frail old man she looks down upon subverts – patriarchal power relations. Although the mother figure cradling a baby in might seem to be a The Messenger young, beautiful and not dissimilar to Coventry placid ‘Victorian angel-woman’ Patmore’s Honoria who is only a pattern Victorian lady but almost literally an angel on she ‘not earth’, is imbued with a death-bringing power traditionally associated with the demonic rather than the angelic figure, which disrupts a straightforward perception of this maternal figure as simply benign and benevolent. She is not merely of as a gender Other ‘a memento otherness’ associated with the after life or beyond death, and a or ‘Other world’ ‘memento mori’ reminder of death, but also a perpetrator of death. Indeed, Gilbert and Gubar argue that an angel-woman who is yet somehow like the of ‘indomitably earthly supernatural’, ‘Angel in is a of the lower world who is a kind of antithetical mirror The Messenger, Death’ ‘creature image of an a demon or monster. While this stiff female figure lacks the angel’ – seductiveness of a Pre-Raphaelite femme fatale, she is nevertheless a as a ‘deadly woman’ personification of death manifest in the world of the living who sustains life with one hand and takes it away with the other. Though the dichotomy of angel/demon is problematic from a feminist perspective because it attempts to define woman in terms of a rigid binary system which reduces her to two possible roles, perpetuating female stereotypes, this angelic yet ominous female figure complicates the dominant stereotype of the mother as merely submissive, passive and powerless in much art of the period. The female figure in acquires a disconcerting duplicity and The Messenger of and disturbing limits in her ‘dangerous sense doubleness’, blurring boundaries embodiment of binary opposites. She seems to be a denial of death, signifying that is ‘nothing and that there is another world beyond the corporeal, yet as a revenant ever sufficiently dead’
The Messenger, the depiction of man at the mercy of woman – whose strong and central physical presence is a striking contrast to the frail old man she looks down upon – subverts patriarchal power relations. Although the mother figure cradling a baby in The Messenger might seem to be a young, beautiful and placid ‘Victorian angel-woman’ not dissimilar to Coventry Patmore’s Honoria who is ‘not only a pattern Victorian lady but almost literally an angel on earth’, she is imbued with a death-bringing power traditionally associated with the demonic rather than the angelic figure, which disrupts a straightforward perception of this maternal figure as simply benign and benevolent. She is not merely ‘a memento of otherness’ as a gender Other associated with the ‘Other world’ after life or beyond death, and a ‘memento mori’ or reminder of death, but also a perpetrator of death. Indeed, Gilbert and Gubar argue that an angel-woman who is ‘indomitably earthly yet somehow supernatural’, like the ‘Angel of Death’ in The Messenger, is a ‘creature of the lower world who is a kind of antithetical mirror image of an angel’ – a demon or monster. While this stiff female figure lacks the seductiveness of a Pre-Raphaelite femme fatale, she is nevertheless a ‘deadly woman’ as a personification of death manifest in the world of the living who sustains life with one hand and takes it away with the other. Though the dichotomy of angel/demon is problematic from a feminist perspective because it attempts to define woman in terms of a rigid binary system which reduces her to two possible roles, perpetuating female stereotypes, this angelic yet ominous female figure complicates the dominant stereotype of the mother as merely submissive, passive and powerless in much art of the period. The female figure in The Messenger acquires a disconcerting duplicity and ‘dangerous sense of doubleness’, blurring boundaries and disturbing limits in her embodiment of binary opposites. She seems to be a denial of death, signifying that ‘nothing is ever sufficiently dead’ and that there is another world beyond the corporeal, yet as a revenant