Start Date
26-3-2024 2:00 PM
End Date
26-3-2024 2:18 PM
Location
Museum Education Room
Name of Faculty Mentor
Dr. Jennifer Flaherty
Abstract
The traditional story of Orpheus and Eurydice, as featured in Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses, never allows the reader to understand Eurydice’s perspective, allowing her no agency as a character and not allowing her to be anything but an object of Orpheus’s desire. Anaïs Mitchell’s Broadway musical, Hadestown, and Céline Sciamma’s film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, are two modern interpretations of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that rework the story in ways that allow Eurydice to achieve more agency as a character. Unlike Ovid’s version of Eurydice, Hadestown’s Eurydice and Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s Eurydice stand-in, Héloïse, are provided with backstories and characterized as clever, strong-willed, stubborn, and practical. Additionally, they are both active characters in their narratives, making choices that determine their own fate, such as choosing to love Orpheus, choosing to descend to their story’s version of the underworld, and choosing to or not to return to their Orpheus. In contrast, Ovid’s Eurydice is never allowed a moment of say in anything that happens in the original story. While Ovid’s version of Eurydice only has one word of dialogue, and even then, it is whispered so faintly Orpheus can hardly hear it, both Hadestown and Portrait of a Lady on Fire clearly assign their Eurydice figures with strong voices, clearly giving the audience insight into Eurydice’s feelings and wants, developing her into a strong and well-written character.
Included in
Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons, Other English Language and Literature Commons, Other Film and Media Studies Commons
Wait for Me: Finding Eurydice’s Voice in Hadestown and Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Museum Education Room
The traditional story of Orpheus and Eurydice, as featured in Ovid’s epic poem Metamorphoses, never allows the reader to understand Eurydice’s perspective, allowing her no agency as a character and not allowing her to be anything but an object of Orpheus’s desire. Anaïs Mitchell’s Broadway musical, Hadestown, and Céline Sciamma’s film, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, are two modern interpretations of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth that rework the story in ways that allow Eurydice to achieve more agency as a character. Unlike Ovid’s version of Eurydice, Hadestown’s Eurydice and Portrait of a Lady on Fire’s Eurydice stand-in, Héloïse, are provided with backstories and characterized as clever, strong-willed, stubborn, and practical. Additionally, they are both active characters in their narratives, making choices that determine their own fate, such as choosing to love Orpheus, choosing to descend to their story’s version of the underworld, and choosing to or not to return to their Orpheus. In contrast, Ovid’s Eurydice is never allowed a moment of say in anything that happens in the original story. While Ovid’s version of Eurydice only has one word of dialogue, and even then, it is whispered so faintly Orpheus can hardly hear it, both Hadestown and Portrait of a Lady on Fire clearly assign their Eurydice figures with strong voices, clearly giving the audience insight into Eurydice’s feelings and wants, developing her into a strong and well-written character.