Vintage Victorian Valentine Card: Woman in Heart with Dove

Trapped inside a red heart-shaped portrait frame like some kind of Victorian hostage situation, a dark-haired woman gazes out with the thousand-yard stare of someone who has just realized a white dove is descending directly toward her head trailing a red ribbon. Below her, a blue arrow pierces the bottom of the heart, because apparently being imprisoned in a cardiac locket wasn't romantic enough — she also needed to be shot. The whole arrangement is flanked by a silver diagonal banner and scattered decorative hearts, suggesting that the card's sender had a very maximalist approach to courtship that can only be described as 'I love you so much I have constructed a multi-layer symbolic trap for your likeness.' The gold banner at the bottom cheerfully reads 'Be My Valentine,' which at this point feels less like an invitation and more like a binding legal contract.