Words vs. Music

 

Orpheus loves music. There’s no doubt about it. Every time Eurydice asks him what’s on his mind, he is thinking about music. He’s a musician; it’s what he does.

Eurydice loves books and words. She likes to mull over the opinions of others and think through arguments. She likes interesting new things. She likes to hear stories. Nothing wrong with that.

They’re two nice people, ridiculously good-looking, and they’re in love. So what’s the problem? Well… they have two different ways of looking at the world. Orpheus is more concrete; more black and white. Things are just how he sees them. Eurydice sees more possibilities; more options. Even this wouldn’t be a problem, except that when Orpheus looks at Eurydice, he only sees music. At best, he’s uninterested and at worst, uncomfortable with her love of language. He tries to change the subject – back to music.

From almost the very first page of the script, Orpheus tries to make Eurydice over into how he sees her. He tries to teach her his melodies. He says he’s going to turn every strand of her hair into an instrument to play his music. He pesters her to practice and remember his melodies. If he weren’t so darn adorable, I’m sure she’d notice that he’s a tad controlling.

Throughout her play, Sarah Ruhl uses music and words to play out the relationships and story line. Language plays a big role in remembering in the Underworld and building the relationship between Eurydice and her Father. The power of Orpheus’ music is how he gets into the Underworld… almost. Actually it’s the power of his music and Eurydice’s name. To successfully reach Eurydice, he had to utilize both; he had to sing her name.

After Eurydice makes her choice to stay and they are saying goodbye, he brings up again her appalling lack of rhythm – spelling out the ways she did not measure up to his ideal. In the very end, I think he starts to get it. He calls out, “Will you talk to me!”[i]By then it is too late.

Orpheus came to find Eurydice with music – his music. I wonder… would he have succeeded if he found her with words?

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[i] Ruhl, Sarah. Eurydice. New York: Samuel French, 2008. Print.

More dramatic film goodbyes

Now Voyager must hold the record for the most dramatic goodbyes in a single movie. Here's one by train:

(Ah, the noble affair - one that is good for everyone!)

And here's one by plane:

(The real trick is smoking and kissing through a veil! I guess that was the ultimate cool in the 40's.)

These aren't even all the goodbyes in this film - you'll have to watch it to get the rest.

Modern-day Myths in Eurydice

The ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is not the only myth Sarah Ruhl tackles in Eurydice; she also takes on some modern-day myths. I believe that the 1950’s setting of the script is very significant. There is a definite look at gender roles in Eurydice and what better decade to revel in gender myths than the 50’s. Let’s look at some advertisements from that period to see what kind of modern-day myths we find:

Smoking is not that bad for you, in fact, it doctor endorsed.

DDT makes for happy, healthy people, animals and veggies.

If you want to be a good parent, give your baby a healthy start with soda.

Now let’s look specifically at ads about women:

Women should be domestic angel by day…

…and alluring sex goddess by night.

Women are overly emotional, not to mention incompetent.

Women are weak.

Women are (and I quote) “useful – even pleasant [indoors, but]

on a mountain they are something of a drag.”

Women are happiest when housekeeping.

Never mind that Mornidine, a morning sickness medicine, caused babies to be born without arms and legs; at least Father didn’t have to struggle with the percolator.

Is there any doubt what makes an ideal woman?

I think these ads speak for themselves. Isn’t it nice we’ve come so far…

…or have we?

(a contemporary ad for Gucci)

Ruhl is speaking to these issues that still shape our society. By giving Eurydice a voice and a choice (two things she’s traditionally robbed of in the story,) and by setting her journey against the backdrop of the 1950’s, I think Ruhl has plenty to say.

Never Look Back (The Gaze - Part II)

There’s been some pretty famous looks in history:

One look at the snake-haired Medusa would turn you to stone.

One look at Helen of Troy’s beauty would launch a thousand ships.

In Hollywood, the on- and off-screen pair of Bogart and Bacall’s looks smoldered,

“Here’s looking at you kid.”

And who could forget Zoolander’s epic Magnum?

 – eclipsed only by Orpheus’s look for sheer power and effect.

With just one look, he relegates Eurydice to the Underworld forever.

Such an ill-fated look is found elsewhere in stories. There are a whole bunch of stories where people are told not to look. Psyche, in Greek mythology, is told she has to marry a monster, but must never look at him when he comes to her in the night. The same thing happens in a Norse tale called East of the Sun and West of the Moon, except this girl has to marry a great white bear.

In both stories, the girls bow to family pressure and take a candle and look. They both see magnificent men and accidentally drop three drops of wax on their husband’s bodies. Their enchanted husbands have to leave the girls who looked. After arduous journeys, both girls win back their husbands and break their enchantments. The stories don’t always end so happily…

In The Crane Wife, a Japanese man is married to a woman who is really a crane who weaves her own feathers into exquisite sails for the man to sell. When he breaks his vow never to look while she is weaving, she flies away forever.

Perhaps one of the most ill-fated looks of all time was that of Lot’s wife in the Bible. Her family is commanded to leave the wicked city of Sodom before the Lord destroys it and to never look back. She looks… and is turned into a pillar of salt. Pretty harsh for one look, but perhaps it wasn’t what was in the look, but what was in her heart.

Lot’s Wife pillar on Mount Sodom, Israel

The message in all these ill-fated looks seems to be Never Look Back. What’s done is done; what’s dead is dead; it’s time to move forward.

The Japanese myth of Izanami is very similar to Orpheus and Eurydice. She dies and her husband, Izanagi braves a journey to the underworld to retrieve her. While there, he takes his light and looks at her sleeping. He sees her rotting flesh crawling with vile creatures and he runs away in terror. She wakes and in fury gives chase. Izanagi barely escapes the underworld alive.

Ruhl’s Eurydice is full of people looking back. The Father lives in a world of past memories; Eurydice is conflicted about leaving her father for Orpheus and Orpheus can’t seem to move on after Eurydice’s death. No one seems to be able to learn that:

To look back is death, to look forward is life.
The past is to be learned from but not lived in.

New Clip: Father of the Bride

The original Father of the Bride (1950) with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor is a wonderful movie. The following clip is a little long, but watch the wedding scene (about 3 minutes in) to see not only a classic example of a 1950's dream wedding, but a classic example of a conflicted father figure. The same love triangle we see in Eurydice exists here:

Calling all Hepcats!

Do you have to jitterbeg in Eurydice? Don't know how? Not to worry, just follow this simple instructional video and you'll be jivin' in no time!

More Clips: The Ideal Woman

These clips are full of lots of handy tips!

Pleasantville, 1998

Harry Enfield Television Programme, 1990

Are You Popular? 1947

And now a word of warning to the less-than-ideal: