#I’m really annoyed with the tik tok trend of being seeing Hadestown and then “proving a point

[poor-boy-orpheus]

Can’t believe I have to explain this but Orpheus doesn’t turn around because he doesn’t care. Orpheus doesn’t turn around because he doesn’t trust her. Orpheus doesn’t turn around because he’s doomed by the narrative.

Orpheus turns around because he loves Eurydice.

Orpheus turns around because for a brief moment in his life he knew true happiness and the fulfillment of love but by his own deficiencies, his own distractions, he lost her. She died because he wasn’t around enough to notice she was dying. We don’t know what we truly have until we lose it.

Step away from the metaphor and remember that Hades courting/seducing/assaulting Eurydice is coded language for her dying. She died in the arms of another man not because she was unfaithful but because Orpheus was - he wasn’t there because he was too caught up in his own legend.

Then, he braves his own death to go where mortals cannot. He risks everything he has to go back and find her to make it up to her. Hades greets him there and offers a choice. A contest that cannot be won.

If Orpheus didn’t love Eurydice with every ounce of his soul then he wouldn’t have risked losing it to gain her back. He had nothing to gain but his love, he could have been much more heroic conquering kingdoms and killing monsters on the surface like so many other heroes. But Orpheus is what Heracles isn’t: where Heracles gives up love for his own godhood, Orpheus gives up his life to reconnect with his love.

It is love that makes him turn back for assurance that Eurydice is still there - the love he didn’t show her on the surface. He lost her because he wasn’t around, wasn’t paying attention to her until she literally died. Now, the only way for him to have her back is for him to neglect her again. Something he has sworn not to do. Something he has given up his life out of guilt and love to never do again. Hades punishes Orpheus for his sin by forcing him to recreate it. He lost Eurydice with neglect and now only neglect will save her.

But if he was still neglecting her he wouldn’t have come. If he was still uncaring and self obsessed then he would have moved on long ago. He has grown, matured, and he loves Eurydice with all he has.

How can he just go on without being sure she’s there this time?

Moreover, how can he be sure she would even want to come back to him?

It is love that motivates Orpheus. He’s not foolish or dumb, he’s learned that to love someone is to see them, to take care of them, to cherish them. And Hades knows this. He uses this love, this need to cherish against him. And Orpheus falls for it.

If you can’t understand that, then it is from your own lack of being pushed to the very brink and facing your own worst traits.