Commentary. The passage depicts an epiphany experienced by an adolescent, Stephen, as he wanders down a beach. He sees a silent, beautiful figure and observes her, transfixed. What is interesting is that the first paragraph of the extract also acts much like an introduction, setting the scene. It probably does this to ensure the reader that this dream-like passage is very real, and no dream nor hallucination. The piece has many religious, immortal and divine …showed first 75 words of 784 total…

…showed last 75 words of 784 total…This sense of ‘being alone’ rather than ‘loneliness’ is worthy of note because even when the ‘angel’ notices Stephen it still stresses that she is not with him but detached from his world, and he from hers. She has given him a piece of the divine to cherish, an image of an angel to take forth, maybe she has bestowed upon him a vision of the glory of heaven and of the joy of life.