Previous
Father Gonzaga
This minor character has the body of a (very large) tarantula and the head of a fair maiden. She has a simple tale to tell of family tragedy, and because the townspeople recognize themselves in her more than in the angel, she becomes by far the more popular attraction in town. Even though she is physically less humanlike than the angel, her moral tale is easily digestible: “A spectacle like that, full of so much human truth and with such a fearful lesson, was bound to defeat without even trying that of a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals.” This shows that the townspeople prefer what is familiar but outwardly exotic (the spider woman) to what is truly otherworldly and mysterious (the angel).
The Spider Woman Quotes in A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
The A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings quotes below are all either spoken by The Spider Woman or refer to The Spider Woman . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Quotes
A spectacle like that, full of so much human truth and with such a fearful lesson, was bound to defeat without even trying that of a haughty angel who scarcely deigned to look at mortals. Besides, the few miracles attributed to the angel showed a certain mental disorder, like the blind man who didn’t recover his sight but grew three new teeth, or the paralytic who didn’t get to walk but almost won the lottery, and the leper whose sores sprouted sunflowers. Those consolation miracles, which were more like mocking fun, had already ruined the angel’s reputation when the woman who had been changed into a spider finally crushed him completely.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
The angel is displaying inhuman powers here: he made an adult man grow new teeth, and a leper’s sores grew flowers. However, instead of seeing this as proof of his otherworldly nature, the townspeople feel shortchanged—even mocked—as these “consolation miracles” aren’t the ones they want. Instead of miracles that will change their lives, they get miracles that show them how strange their lives already are, and clearly they are not open to seeing the miraculous in the everyday. It’s noteworthy, too, that the townspeople describe the angel as “haughty” and “mocking,” which are characterizations that don’t seem to apply to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo
Get the entire A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The Spider Woman Character Timeline in A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings
The timeline below shows where the character The Spider Woman appears in A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
Around this time, a spectacular new carnival attraction arrives in town: a woman who has been changed into a spider . She still has her normal head, but her body is that of a ram-sized...
(full context)
...leper sprout sunflowers. Between the townspeople’s annoyance at the angel and their distraction by the spider-woman, they stop paying much attention to the winged old man. At long last, Father Gonzaga...
(full context)
