Angels or Demons? Women in Phantastes

    During our discussion of Phantastes this week we took a deeper look into the way women are portrayed.  It seems that in most cases the women are the face of motherhood and of all things kind and good and natural.  They are also quicker to cry and love and believe in the magic of Faerie.  As Dr. Smith pointed out, this book has the same outlook as many did during the Victorian Era.
    At the time, women were seen as one or the other: angels or demons, with a heavy emphasis on the angelic.  They were expected to be this ideal that, we can all imagine without the need of Faerie, is rather difficult to live up to. As a man writing this book, even a married man, George MacDonald would have still had this delusion about women.
    Of course, not all of the fairer sex live up to the hype and are therefore termed as demons or Medusa.  In the novel there was really only one woman that was not a mother to Anodos nor did she love him or protect him.  The Maid of the Alder tree was at first beautiful and everything he could ever want, but soon the facade fell away to reveal a woman that had no heart and was indeed rotting away.
   Every other was the model, according to Dr. Smith, of what a Victorian woman was thought to be.  They were all even described as beautiful, except the ogress and perhaps the old woman with the young eyes.  Yet the old woman with the young eyes was still gentle to him, and there was something wonderful about her.
   I would have liked if we had more insight on the ogress.  She was mentioned to be reading a passage of the Bible and she even warned Anodos not to open the closet door, but did nothing to stop him.  Presumably she was a terrifying sight (the usual description for an ogress is none too flattering), yet even though she was not the breathtaking sight that Anodos must certainly be accustomed to, she did offer advice.
   Anodos was, throughout the novel, a difficult boy who was unlikely to listen to any advice given to him.  However, he more often than not, took it into consideration (no doubt because of the mothering way women are).  When he met the ogress though he did not.  He pulled open the door with little hesitation and, as always, suffered the consequences.
   Although she did try to help him, he had been told to avoid the ogress by the people he had stayed with before.  A horrible tale had been told of her to dissuade him from staying with her.  This makes me wonder whether she was meant to be the angel or the demon.  Surely she was not beautiful, but nor was she evil and nor was she good.  She did not physically try to stop him but offered a word of advice she more than likely knew would be ignored.   Anodos hardly thinks of her again so she left no real impression upon him.  Was she perhaps another option?  Not an angel of mercy and not a demon wishing to kill him, merely an indifferent woman?  I believe that while I can easily categorize the other women mentioned, the ogress is more difficult, she is much more like what real women are than the extremes otherwise presented us.  What do you think?  Is she good, evil, or an in between?