No one bound to be so holy
A broad character analysis of Anna over S4, with the analysis hooked to plenty of screencaps. This is partly because this is the way I think of and analyze tv shows, and partly because I like teh pretty. This meta-and-picspam got big while I was putting it all together, so I'll be posting it in 3 (!) parts.
Before I start, many thanks to my excellent and thoughtful initial readers, both of whom listen to my ramblings with remarkable patience and always stay awake long enough to offer something insightful in response. One is my better half, and the other knows who she is. A million thank yous, my dear! I owe you a cupcake. :)
Screencaps are all thanks to the hard work of the kind people at Screencap Paradise.
The lyrics are from Richard Schindell's gorgeous song, On a Sea of Fleur-de-Lis, which (if I understand it correctly) is about the death of Joan of Arc.
I adore thee Mother Mary
But would you change me back to a witch
And let me live in the arms of a sorry old elm
Give the gypsy moths a realm of their own
The first time we meet Anna, we see her staring up and out, eyes cast towards Heaven, or something far away and off screen.
The tilt of her head, the look on her face--these things recalled some image I couldn't quite remember. Fortunately, She-Who-Deserves-Cupcakes pointed me to this painting. I'm glad she did, since it (ultimately) helped me organize this meta and added a little more weight to the parallels I noticed between Anna and St. Joan of Arc.
Joan of Arc's story is well-known enough that I'm not going to go over it here, but I'll point to parallels and similarities as I go.
The first of these parallels is a broad one: Anna is a young woman from relatively humble beginnings purportedly hearing the voices of the angels. This is nothing new, right? This isn't the first time we've seen this in the show, even. But contrast Anna's appearance here to this woman from Houses of the Holy.
The way light streams in through this window creates the effect of a church, reinforced by the way she sits facing this light, reading her Bible. This effect is the viewer's focus, not the woman herself. With Anna, the focus is very much on the character, so we know from the outset that she will be different.
Though Anna also is surrounded by windows creating high light and shadows in a church-like atmosphere:
In contrast to the other woman, she is almost always shown with her back to them.
Anyway, both women claim to have heard the voices of the angels, though only one of them actually has. In another day and age, they would have been called witches or heretics or been suspected of being possessed. These days, we just think they're crazy. Smarter, wiser, and more well-read people have studied the intersection between mystical experience and insanity, so I definitely couldn't do it justice here. But, for example, modern scholars have tried to explain Joan's visions and voices as everything from schizophrenia to a brain tumor.
At this point, I think it's interesting to note that one of St. Joan's primary voices was that of the archangel Michael, who has been referenced many times in the show. The archangel appears again, when Sam and Dean finally catch up with escaped Anna:
The stained glass panel she is hiding behind is, I believe, Michael. He's wearing red, as Michael usually is, and he's carrying a sword, which is traditionally Michael's. Here's a slightly clearer image:
At least, this is how I was taught it: Michael (the warrior) wears red (usually with blue accents) and carries a sword, Gabriel (the herald) wears blue (usually with red accents) and carries a trumpet. (This always made me like Gabriel more. I mean, a trumpet? It can't be easy to be the band geek in the Heavenly Host.) If Michael were ever to draw his sword, it was one of the many harbingers of the Apocalypse; Gabriel blowing that trumpet would also usher in the End of Days.
In this scene, the boys hear Anna's voice before they see her. In fact, it is hearing the boys talking, and hearing Sam's name, that convinces her to reveal herself. The lit nerd in me is tempted to spin out a whole different analysis, here, of transmission of Words. (Contrast this, for example, with Castiel's first attempts at communicating with Dean, and even Jimmy, and think of the significance of The Word, particularly of The Word as brought to man--and Mary--by God's angelic messengers. Part of me also thinks: that way lies mpreg.) But that's a whole other post, I think.
So! Back to Anna.
We learn that the first thing Anna hears on the angel radio was an announcement of Dean's rescue. There’s a part of me (fannish, obsessed, and shippy!) that wants to know who made that announcement: Castiel? Was his voice the first she heard, the thing that broke her out of her safe little world? Expelled Anna Milton from Eden? (This is one of many points where the show paints ignorance of the truth as a blissful paradise, and knowledge an almost impossible burden. Jimmy Novack is a great example of a kind of paradise lost, but another example is of the doomed 3rd Winchester, Adam. Unfortunately for poor Adam, the apple took a bite out of him.)
So, here we have Anna, a sweet deacon's daughter from The Middle, whose life has gone sideways since she started hearing angels. Still, she's open, she's earnest, she laughs at Dean's kinda lame jokes. In her first scene with the boys, she also continually stands with her back to the big stained glass window with the cross, her back again towards the light. And, in the way it's shot, she's standing between Sam and Dean, between the respective tools of Hell and Heaven.
This is something the show repeatedly does with Anna. In Heaven and Hell, see how she's pictured, here, halfway between Dean and Ruby. Look at the way she is sitting, too--like an innocent kid curled up in dad's favorite chair.
Of course, we know that innocence won't last long.
Stay tuned for Part 2! In the meantime, please let me know what you think. Am I on to something, or just a crazy picspamming nutter?
I should note that I'm trying to avoid S5 spoilers, so please don't make reference to anything spoliery and S5-related in your comments. Thank you!
Edit: On to Part 2. . . .
Before I start, many thanks to my excellent and thoughtful initial readers, both of whom listen to my ramblings with remarkable patience and always stay awake long enough to offer something insightful in response. One is my better half, and the other knows who she is. A million thank yous, my dear! I owe you a cupcake. :)
Screencaps are all thanks to the hard work of the kind people at Screencap Paradise.
The lyrics are from Richard Schindell's gorgeous song, On a Sea of Fleur-de-Lis, which (if I understand it correctly) is about the death of Joan of Arc.
I adore thee Mother Mary
But would you change me back to a witch
And let me live in the arms of a sorry old elm
Give the gypsy moths a realm of their own
The first time we meet Anna, we see her staring up and out, eyes cast towards Heaven, or something far away and off screen.
The tilt of her head, the look on her face--these things recalled some image I couldn't quite remember. Fortunately, She-Who-Deserves-Cupcakes pointed me to this painting. I'm glad she did, since it (ultimately) helped me organize this meta and added a little more weight to the parallels I noticed between Anna and St. Joan of Arc.
Joan of Arc's story is well-known enough that I'm not going to go over it here, but I'll point to parallels and similarities as I go.
The first of these parallels is a broad one: Anna is a young woman from relatively humble beginnings purportedly hearing the voices of the angels. This is nothing new, right? This isn't the first time we've seen this in the show, even. But contrast Anna's appearance here to this woman from Houses of the Holy.
The way light streams in through this window creates the effect of a church, reinforced by the way she sits facing this light, reading her Bible. This effect is the viewer's focus, not the woman herself. With Anna, the focus is very much on the character, so we know from the outset that she will be different.
Though Anna also is surrounded by windows creating high light and shadows in a church-like atmosphere:
In contrast to the other woman, she is almost always shown with her back to them.
Anyway, both women claim to have heard the voices of the angels, though only one of them actually has. In another day and age, they would have been called witches or heretics or been suspected of being possessed. These days, we just think they're crazy. Smarter, wiser, and more well-read people have studied the intersection between mystical experience and insanity, so I definitely couldn't do it justice here. But, for example, modern scholars have tried to explain Joan's visions and voices as everything from schizophrenia to a brain tumor.
At this point, I think it's interesting to note that one of St. Joan's primary voices was that of the archangel Michael, who has been referenced many times in the show. The archangel appears again, when Sam and Dean finally catch up with escaped Anna:
The stained glass panel she is hiding behind is, I believe, Michael. He's wearing red, as Michael usually is, and he's carrying a sword, which is traditionally Michael's. Here's a slightly clearer image:
At least, this is how I was taught it: Michael (the warrior) wears red (usually with blue accents) and carries a sword, Gabriel (the herald) wears blue (usually with red accents) and carries a trumpet. (This always made me like Gabriel more. I mean, a trumpet? It can't be easy to be the band geek in the Heavenly Host.) If Michael were ever to draw his sword, it was one of the many harbingers of the Apocalypse; Gabriel blowing that trumpet would also usher in the End of Days.
In this scene, the boys hear Anna's voice before they see her. In fact, it is hearing the boys talking, and hearing Sam's name, that convinces her to reveal herself. The lit nerd in me is tempted to spin out a whole different analysis, here, of transmission of Words. (Contrast this, for example, with Castiel's first attempts at communicating with Dean, and even Jimmy, and think of the significance of The Word, particularly of The Word as brought to man--and Mary--by God's angelic messengers. Part of me also thinks: that way lies mpreg.) But that's a whole other post, I think.
So! Back to Anna.
We learn that the first thing Anna hears on the angel radio was an announcement of Dean's rescue. There’s a part of me (fannish, obsessed, and shippy!) that wants to know who made that announcement: Castiel? Was his voice the first she heard, the thing that broke her out of her safe little world? Expelled Anna Milton from Eden? (This is one of many points where the show paints ignorance of the truth as a blissful paradise, and knowledge an almost impossible burden. Jimmy Novack is a great example of a kind of paradise lost, but another example is of the doomed 3rd Winchester, Adam. Unfortunately for poor Adam, the apple took a bite out of him.)
So, here we have Anna, a sweet deacon's daughter from The Middle, whose life has gone sideways since she started hearing angels. Still, she's open, she's earnest, she laughs at Dean's kinda lame jokes. In her first scene with the boys, she also continually stands with her back to the big stained glass window with the cross, her back again towards the light. And, in the way it's shot, she's standing between Sam and Dean, between the respective tools of Hell and Heaven.
This is something the show repeatedly does with Anna. In Heaven and Hell, see how she's pictured, here, halfway between Dean and Ruby. Look at the way she is sitting, too--like an innocent kid curled up in dad's favorite chair.
Of course, we know that innocence won't last long.
Stay tuned for Part 2! In the meantime, please let me know what you think. Am I on to something, or just a crazy picspamming nutter?
I should note that I'm trying to avoid S5 spoilers, so please don't make reference to anything spoliery and S5-related in your comments. Thank you!
Edit: On to Part 2. . . .