Analyzing Carol Ann Duffy's Eurydice

In Carol Ann Duffy’s “Eurydice”, a woman from the Underworld name Eurydice is chosen by a God, namely the God Orpheus, to be his prize, or bride. The interesting spin to this poem, however, is that Eurydice is very keen on staying in the Underworld, and “[she’d] rather be dead” than be known as Orpheus’ “dearest, beloved, dark lady, white goddess, etc. etc” (Duffy). In order to escape the fate of forever being known as this patriarchal God’s wife, Eurydice tricks Orpheus into turning around to look at her as they are ascending into the living world. This causes Orpheus to be given the opportunity to escape the bonds of marriage to a God, and return back to the Underworld where she is more comfortable than being in a strong, powerful man’s arms. This poem is more of a contrast to Jane Austen’s Emma than it is a comparison. Eurydice is tormented by the concept of devoting her future to a man that craves to be the dominant one, and mocks Orpheus for “strut[ing] his stuff” (Duffy). This opinion of marriage is very different from what the ladies in Emma believe. To them, marriage is the end all be all; the end goal and destination to a happy life. Therefore, it would probably come as quite a shock to Emma, Harriet, and the other women in the novel that Eurydice preferred to be “unavailable” and “out of this world” instead of being married off to a man that she barely knew (Duffy). Eurydice even goes as far as to make fun of men’s ways of courting a lady, saying that the Underworld was “the one place you’d think a girl would be safe from the kind of a man who follows her round writing poems hovers about while she reads them, [and] calls her his Muse” (Duffy). This is a very strange perspective compared to the women’s in Emma, who revel in small riddles and love letters sent from men of high status.