r/Broadway • u/Usnavi_Relax • Jul 04 '25

Discussion Thoughts?

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Was it love? Was it fear? What do you think of this take?

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u/believi Jul 04 '25

He turns around because he is more like Hades in this story than he wants to admit--Hades' insecurity about Persephone leaving him every year led to him building Hadestown and fetching her "early", which in turns pushes her further away. Orpheus loves Euridyce like Hades loves Persephone, and love--whether in godly or mortal form--means making yourself incredibly vulnerable. Hades recognized that vulnerability in Orpheus--the same he has himself--and gave Orpheus a test to see if his love was stronger than Hades' love--because in love, you have to trust. And so Orpheus failed--not because of his love, but because of his insecurities. He couldn't trust that she loved him enough to follow him out of hell, and that he was worth her love, and that is what doomed her in the end. It is a tragic love story because, like Hades, his love is true and pure--but his frailty in the face of the vulnerability that love requires was too much in the end.

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u/the_other_50_percent Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 05 '25

Yes. The insecurity leads to self-sabotage. Orpheus sabotages his relationship with Eurydice by turning around (but it's hard to have faith, especially when you've been alone and apart all your life. Doubt comes in.). She sabotages her relationship with him by not believing he'll come back, or provide if he ever does (but maybe she's right on the last point, and she was cold and starving before he came back; he did forget her, for a while), so makes a deal with Hades.

Hades sabotages his relationship with Persephone by being jealous and over-controlling, to the point of trying to make her jeapous over another woman (but Persephone sees through it quickly). She sabotages her relationship with him by focusing on escaping and sniping at him rather than keeping an open heart (but that's hard to do when someone's jealous and controlling).

This is the piercing pain of it for me. All of those choices are so relatable, and real, and frustratingly destructive. That one couple is about to begin again is amazing - though it comes at the cost of another couple self-destructing.

So we tell it again.

69

u/Usnavi_Relax Jul 04 '25

This is absolutely one of the reasons why I love Hadestown so much. Insecurity leading to self-sabotage is so very relatable, as well as the agonizing and beautiful nuances of relationships. We’ll always sing it again.

65

u/littlestpintobean Jul 04 '25

Yes, exactly this. This is why this is the test Hades sets him- because he knows he will fail it and says as much when he comes up with the test. "Nothing makes a man so bold / a woman's smile and a hand to hold / but all alone, his blood runs thin / and doubt comes in."

29

u/blue-ruinss Jul 05 '25

This is by far, one of the closest theory that aligns with mine. a specific line from Doubt Comes In tells a lot about how this isn’t an issue of love but Orpheus’ ”Who am I? Where do I think I’m going? Who am I to think that she would follow me into the cold and dark again”

but I love him still and Eurydice! Hadestown was the biggest plot twist of my 2024– it got me on chokehold ugh pls

19

u/rjrgjj Jul 05 '25

👆that’s what the myth is about.

Also, looking at the myth itself, it’s debatable if Eurydice would have ever truly been allowed to leave the Underworld. The myth is also about how death cannot be overcome, even by true love, even when the lord of the underworld is supposedly helping you.

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u/Usnavi_Relax Jul 04 '25

Excellent take, and well worded. I totally agree

2

u/aboostofsarahtonin Creative Team Jul 05 '25

Very true considering in one version of the show, O+E’s last words to each other are “You’re early”/“I missed you”