24 pages • 48 minutes read
Ocean VuongEurydice
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Death
One potential interpretation of "Eurydice" is impending death. The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice features a failed attempt to defeat death. Vuong even begins the poem with a scene of death: a doe's death rattle as an arrowhead strikes its heart. The arrowhead becomes the sunset that "replaces the day" (Line 4)—the day stands in for the doe's life, highlighting its brevity.
The speaker and his companion "saw it coming" (Line 7). The speaker’s use of “it” renders what they saw ambiguous. Did they see the doe's death, the sunset, or their deaths, the death of their relationship? The speaker suggests it does not matter. All these possibilities—twilight, the doe's death, their death—connect. What matters is that they exist, and the speaker is aware of them.
Despite their awareness, the speaker and their companion continue their journey as their position fools them into thinking they have more time than they have. The leaves appear "pure green" (Line 10) as if in daylight. However, the speaker says it is one's position that makes one seem darker. Their statement could refer to the progression of time and the closer one moves toward death. The speaker says their partner's position can make their name "sound like a full moon / shredded in a dead doe's pelt" (Lines 17-18).
In the following lines, the speaker highlights the body's vulnerability. Bones and voices break. The idea of love seems secondary to the presence and power the body exerts over oneself. The speaker shows that death can happen at any time and that one's awareness of its inevitability cannot offer protection.
The poem ends in a field with the “him” and a doe. The poem's title, "Eurydice," leads the reader to believe they evoke Orpheus and Eurydice. The “him” calls out for a girl. However, he does not seem to recognize her as the doe beside him. Despite Eurydice's new life, the doe's death at the beginning implies that Eurydice will inevitably die again. One could interpret the poem as how death separates people and makes it difficult to reconnect with their memory.
However, Vuong practices Buddhism, which views death as a traditional state. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, where a person's energy transforms into another form when they die. The girl, arguably, reincarnates as a doe who will die again. Recognizing and accepting impermanence and change as the nature of existence plays a vital role in a Buddhist's journey. In Vuong's "Eurydice," the tragedy comes from Orpheus's inability to accept Eurydice's death and recognize her personhood rather than their separation.
Perception
The poem highlights how easily a person's perceptions about the world and other people can change depending on their circumstances. While the speaker and their companion travel, they recognize that the day is ending. However, they keep traveling because the leaves' color and the fire in the distance made it look like day. The speaker says that "how dark" (Line 12) something seems depends on one's location. They say their companion's name feels like moonlight on a dead doe. This feeling depends on where their companion stands. The companion's name also changes under the force of gravity.
After gravity's attack, the speaker’s certainty about their perception decreases: "Who would believe us / now?" they ask their companion (Lines 25-26). They feel silly believing love is more real than the body, showing a significant shift in their worldview. Companionship did not provide any protection against harm. The speaker’s voice, a way to communicate and express their beliefs, cracks too.
Towards the poem’s middle, the speaker wonders why they and their companion keep saying yes. While the question they comply to is not revealed, the speaker offers context. The previous lines state gravity wants them to look at the sky. The lines after the speaker’s speculation links back to the sky. Birds fly and gravity wanted to show them the sky. The speaker implies that the birds block the sky. Because gravity hurt the speaker and companion by making them look, fear motivates their actions. They give gravity a false perception of their experiences and hide their real perception of the sky. The speaker worries that other people’s perceptions of they and their companion will lessen after this event: “Who would believe us now” (Lines 23-24).
The poem ends with the “him” calling for a girl. The “him” does not recognize the girl as the deer next to him. The speaker portrays circumstance as the primary shaper of perception. In addition, that perception is unreliable and misleading. It can negatively impact a person's ability to connect with others.
Fragility of Relationships Due to Societal Pressures
As discussed in the Contextual Analysis section, Vuong's biography illuminates many of the poem's potential themes. Looking through the lens of Vuong's identity as a gay man, "Eurydice" could be about how societal norms and pressures can damage relationships, especially for gay men. One aspect of homophobia is enforcing that everyone should be heterosexual through societal institutions like the government, courts, schools, healthcare, and churches.
The poem's title also hints at how societal norms affect relationships. In the myth of Eurydice, her lover Orpheus makes a bargain with the god Hades so that Eurydice can return from the dead. As long as Orpheus does not turn around to look at Eurydice until they reach the surface, Eurydice will return with him. When Orpheus reaches the surface and fully exits the cave, he does not realize Eurydice still has one foot left to go. He turns around too quickly, and Hades snatches her back to the underworld. Despite upholding the deal for the entire journey, Orpheus and Eurydice still get punished because of a technicality and bad luck. Through the lens of queer theory, an interpretation of the myth is about living as a marginalized person. Hades, a god, represents a society's rules, structures, and enforcers. While Hades allows love to exist, he only allows it to flourish and survive under certain circumstances (do not look back). When someone deviates from that rule or does not fully comply, they are punished.
The poem opens by linking the passage of time with successful hunting. In the following sentence, the speaker says they and their companion "saw it coming" (Line 7), which could mean they know that the night will replace the day However, they keep moving, seeming to put distance between themselves and a distant fire. Disaster and destruction hang around the speaker and their companion.
Later, gravity breaks their kneecaps and forces them to look up at the sky. Gravity functions similarly to Hades, representing societal pressures and rules. Gravity keeps everyone in place. However, the speaker depicts gravity as a sudden intruder rather than an omnipresent physical force. In the images prior to gravity's introduction, the poem clarifies that people change under the influence of different natural phenomena. The poem introduces this concept through light and shadow. The speaker states, "it's not / about the light—but how dark / it makes you depending / on where you stand" (Lines 12-15). The relationship between darkness and space can make the companion’s name "sound like a full moon" (Line 17).
Because the poem focuses heavily on images of incorporeal or distant light in its first half, gravity stands out more. Likewise, the poem contrasts "your name can sound like" (Line 17) with "your name changed" (Line 19). "Can" denotes possibility. Vuong has seen his companion's name appear that way but implies it may sound different in different contexts. The name possesses flexibility and an ability to return to previous states.
The word "changed" implies a permanent alteration to the companion's name. The past tense marks a clear break between who they were and are. When gravity suddenly emerges, it creates a rupture. Gravity alters how the speaker sees their companion. Gravity hurts them in order to make them do something.
Even though the speaker implies that "all those birds" (Line 22) block their view of the sky, they keep saying “Yes” (Line 21). It makes it seem like gravity asked them if he saw the sky. They conform to gravity's desires due to their previous experience of violence.
Gravity's disruption permanently alters the speaker’s relationship with their companion. At the poem's end, the speaker feels foolish for believing love could outweigh and overcome their physical and political reality. At the poem's end, gravity—thus, society's influence—has placed the speaker in the same "cold field" (Line 32) as a “him” and a doe. The title implies that the “him” and doe are Eurydice and Orpheus.
The poem’s last lines highlight Orpheus's inability to see Eurydice next to him, and the couples' shared physical surroundings put the speaker and their companion in the same boat. After all, the speaker says that gravity changed how they see their companion's name. Societal pressures can make it hard to find and sustain love.
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By Ocean Vuong
