EURYDICE

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 EURYDICE
Eurydice in Greek mythology was the 
wife of Orpheus, a gifted musician and 
lyricist who was the son of Apollo.  It 
was said that he could charm the 
animals and even the stones with his 
wonderful songs.  The happy couple 
were wandering in the meadows one 
evening when Eurydice was accosted 
by a shepherd.  Fleeing from his 
advances, she trod on a snake hidden 
in the grass, which bit her.  Its poison 
was so strong that Eurydice died 
almost immediately and went to 
Hades.  

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 EURYDICE
Orpheus was so grief stricken that he found 
the path to the underworld and went to beg 
for his wife’s return.  His music affected all the 
ghosts and Hades himself with its beauty and 
longing and he was allowed to take Eurydice 
back to the world, on condition that he did 
not look back to see if she was following him.  
On the long journey to the surface they walked 
silently, Eurydice behind Orpheus, but at last 
he could bear it no longer and turned to see if 
she was still with him.  At that moment she 
was snatched back into the underworld for 
ever.

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 EURYDICE
Why do you think Duffy has chosen Eurydice as one
of her wives?

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 EURYDICE
HUMOUR:
The themes in 'Eurydice' lead us to expect a
serious, weighty poem:
alienation, death and a death wish, hatred,
exclusion, exploitation and manipulation.

BUT this monologue is different - spoken by a

woman who knows what she wants and how to
get it.

How is this achieved in the poem? How does the

humour work?

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 EURYDICE
Find examples for each of the following in the
poem:
• Puns and double meanings
• A 'jaunty' rhythm
• Knowing insights into the world of publishing
• Mocking recognisable stereotypes
• Rhymes which give the poem a light-hearted
tone - in particularly inappropriate places
• Unexpected word groups and inappropriate
registers

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 EURYDICE
In the exam, you will have to comment on
alternative views. AO3.
In pairs each read one of the two critical views.
Sum up what you think is the main point being
made.
Tell your partner the main thrust of your critic's
reading. Try to explain how this view can be
supported with reference to the text.

Now in pairs discuss the following:

• What new insights have you gained to the poem?
• Have the readings caused you to rethink your
own interpretation?
• In your opinion, have the critics missed anything
important or interesting about the poem (for
example, its wit, Duffy's playful use of language?

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Critic 1
If words give a name to things, they also estrange those things, make
them strange. To find them truly is to witness the death of words.
‘Eurydice‛ speaks of the Underworld of the dead not as a ‘some-‘ but as
a ‘nowhen‛, ‘a place where language stopped‛, ‘where words had to come
to an end‛. It is, in fact, the final silence at the heart of things, their
inhuman, speechless, ‘thingness‛. Summoned back to life by the voice of
the searching poet, Eurydice feels only the indignation of brute matter
that does not want to be ‘trapped in his images, metaphors, similes‛, his
‘histories, myths‛. In the end, like Eurydice impatient to return to her
death, things will refuse the words that give a human name to them.
Those names are a delusive attempt to domesticate, make safe the
difference and strangeness of things.
Stan Smith ‘What like is it?‛ in Strong Words

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Critic 2
In ‘Eurydice‛ we see a revision of the Greek myth that develops
the themes set up in ‘Little Red-Cap‛. Other poets, including DH
Lawrence have adapted the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice in
order to explore the dynamics of creativity; Duffy does so with
a candid irreverence for both the individual and the tradition,
with a special swipe (again) at the conceit of the male poet.

Her retreat to Hades, it is implied, had nothing to do with Pluto

and everything to do with the Big O‛s appropriation of her as
Muse and typist and the male chauvinist world of publishing.

Here, then, to be ‘dead‛ to the male world of writing is to

become alive as a female subject and author.

Avril Horner: ‘Small Female Skull‛ in Strong Words

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 EURYDICE
Write your response to the poem and the critical
readings as series of statements.

Sentence starters you may use to help with the

structure:

Critic X makes an interesting point when he/she says

'xxxx' because xxxxxx. However, I think xxxxx

In my opionion, Critic X's focus on xxxxx is xxxxxx

Although I cannot agree with xxxxx

I would argue that in addition to xxxxxx

Critic X's reading made me look again at xxxxx

By foregrounding xxxxx, Critic X's reading is xxxx

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 EURYDICE
'Eurydice' and 'Little Red‐Cap' can be read biographically
as a comment on Duffy's experience of male poets. Other
poems that lend themselves particularly well to a
biographical reading include:
'Queen Herod'
'from Mrs Tiresias'
'Demeter'
'Mrs Beast'

What are your views on the importance and the dangers

of reading biographically?

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Attachments

CRITICS.doc