Nightmare and Eurydice
12:00 AM
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| Henry Fuseli, Nightmare, 1781 |
“Eurydice!
Before I go down there, I won’t practice my music. Some say
practice. But practice is a word invented by cowards. The animals don’t have a
word for practice. A gazelle does not run for practice. He runs because he is
scared or he is hungry. A bird doesn’t sing for practice. She sings because
she’s happy or sad. So I say: store it up. The music sounds better in my head
than it does in the world. When songs are pressing against my throat, then,
only then, I will go down and sing for the devils and they will cry through
their parched throats.
Eurydice, Don’t kiss a dead man. Their lips look red and
tempting but put your tongue in their mouths and it tastes like oatmeal. I know
how much you hate oatmeal.
I’m going the way of death.
Here is my plan: Tonight, when I go to bed, I will turn off the light and put a straw in my mouth. When I fall asleep, I will crawl through the straw and my breath will push me like a great wind into the darkness and I will sing your name and I will arrive. I have consulted all the almanacs, the footstools, and the architects, and everyone agrees: I found the right note. Wait for me.
Love,
I’m going the way of death.
Here is my plan: Tonight, when I go to bed, I will turn off the light and put a straw in my mouth. When I fall asleep, I will crawl through the straw and my breath will push me like a great wind into the darkness and I will sing your name and I will arrive. I have consulted all the almanacs, the footstools, and the architects, and everyone agrees: I found the right note. Wait for me.
Love,
Orpheus” -- Scene 17, Eurydice, by Sara Ruhl
When confronted by Henry Fuseli’s Nightmare, one cannot help but feel a sense of unease, if not from the awkward proportions, then surely the strangeness of the subject and their eyes. Although love does not come to mind when staring into this painting, it brought me to a scene from Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. At a glance, the two works seem to be completely different. Yet allowing my mind to wonder, I imagine Orpheus, driven mad from Eurydice’s death, ponder on how to regain his lover. The king of the underworld in this case would be the horse, luring him in.
The painting allowed me to imagine, in a peculiar way, this emotional tragedy. In Orpheus’s letter to Eurydice, he compares his actions to animals, acknowledging that he lives as an animal they way they do. That his actions originate from necessity as animals do to.
The king of the underworld, the horse in the painting, wants both Orpheus and Eurydice to die so that he could have their souls. He enters their lives and leads Eurydice to death with temptation. He then uses her to lure Orpheus.
Fuseli's Nightmare fully encompasses the dark emotions that pertain to the play. An odd couple, they complement each other nicely.
The king of the underworld, the horse in the painting, wants both Orpheus and Eurydice to die so that he could have their souls. He enters their lives and leads Eurydice to death with temptation. He then uses her to lure Orpheus.
Fuseli's Nightmare fully encompasses the dark emotions that pertain to the play. An odd couple, they complement each other nicely.
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