by Seo Park
Although women play pivotal roles in narratives surrounding love and relationships, as wives, girlfriends, mothers, daughters, and sister, mainstream scholarship agrees that there is a strong tendency toward female characters being denied the agency freely given to male characters, which allow them to propel the narrative and make active choices. Female characters have choices made for them or unto them, rather than making choices driven by their own wants and needs. They are often used as tools that drive the male characters’ development. Many female writers have attempted to contend with this lack of control in women’s lives in and out of literature. Sappho was one such writer, who explored her own role as a woman in her relationships with men, the world, and other women. Similarly, many centuries later, Jane Austen often delved into relationships between women and the people that surround them. Centuries later still, Anais Mitchell brought these ideas to the forefront in her Broadway adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. By examining Sappho’s fragments, Jane Austen’s Emma, and Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown, it becomes possible to understand more deeply women’s loss of agency and control, as well as their attempts at securing it. Furthermore, it reveals the writers’ grasp of control on a metatextual level, as female storytellers and poets, to be the ones exerting agency by choosing to tell the stories they tell.
In her seminal work, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal, Naila Kabeer, a prominent social economist, lays out a framework with which to understand women’s empowerment. Power, she says, is “the ability to make choices. To be disempowered means to be denied choice” (Kabeer 13) She elaborates on the concept of ‘choice,’ explaining that, for real choice to exist, there must exist alternatives, and those alternatives must be seen (Kabeer 14). Specifically from the perspective of female empowerment, women must be free to make choices from an assortment of options available to them, and each option must be visible and accountable as such. Kabeer then seeks to understand three aspects of empowerment: “agency, resources, and achievements,” out of which “agency represents the processes by which choices are made and put into effect…hence central to the concept of empowerment” (Kabeer 14). Exploring the loss of women’s agency makes it easier to understand the disempowerment of women, as power cannot exist without agency.
One way to examine women’s loss of agency is to delve into the text of Sappho’s poetry, which shows Sappho’s inability to exert her will and desires in relationships. Sappho’s poetry is fraught with the pains that come with not being able to have what one wants. In Fragment 1, Sappho pleads to Aphrodite, goddess of love- “Come to me now: loose me from hard/ care and all my heart longs/ to accomplish, accomplish. You/ be my ally” (Sappho 5). Here Sappho begs the goddess to allow her to accomplish what her heart desires, implying a lack of such accomplishments throughout her life. Sappho often exists at a distance from the object of her desires, unable to act upon them in any form other than gaze. This is demonstrated in fragment 16 when she writes, “I would rather see her lovely step/ and the motion of light on her face/ than chariots of Lydians or ranks of footsoldiers in arms” (Sappho 29). Her desire is so great that when she compares it to what her society values most, soldiers and warfare, still her desire comes out on top. However, the most powerful tool she has in expressing this is through the perception of her lover’s steps and the lights upon her face. Sappho’s writings are overwhelmed with desire, longing, and yearning, all of which are chiefly characterized by the lack of control over or possession of whatever it is one is longing for. Sappho “pray[s]/ this word:/ I want” (Sappho 41) and she is aware of her lack when she says, “if only I, O goldcrowned Aphrodite,/ could win this lot” (Sappho 67) and, “I long and seek after” (Sappho 73). Sappho is intensely aware of the lack of control she has over her relationships, and this leaves her with a sense of loss and longing. She cannot exert her agency in any way other than through experiencing desire and seeking the object of it. If agency is the ability to want and having the means to attain it through active choices, it eludes Sappho.
Emma by Jane Austen also displays women’s disempowerment and lack of control in the realm of relationships. Emma Woodhouse is a character who stalwartly attempts to maintain her rare form of agency as a woman in the regency era. She is “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and a happy disposition,” (Austen 5) and part of one of the biggest estates in her hometown of Higbury, as “the Woodhouses had been settled for several generations at Hartfield, the younger branch of a very ancient family” (Austen 108). This high position in society, as well as being unmarried, allows her a great level of freedom in the decisions she makes. Emma Woodhouse is able to decide for herself who she wants to associate with. Similarly, Miss Churchill, Captain Weston’s former wife, had “the full command of her fortune” and decided to exercise her will by marrying out of passion and love rather than to maintain or enhance her social class. “She had resolution enough to pursue her own will in spite of her brother” (Austen 13). This exercise of her freedom, however, is promptly punished when she loses the very thing that allotted it: “they lived beyond their income, but still it was nothing in comparison of Enscombe: she did not cease to love her husband, but she wanted at once to be the wife of Captain Weston, and Miss Churchill of Escombe” (Austen 13). Due to circumstances like this, in which wealthy women lose their agency as soon as they attempt to exercise it through marriage, Emma is resolute in her determination to never get married: “I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry…I have never been in love; it is not my way, or my nature; and I do not think I ever shall. And, without love, I am sure I should be a fool to change such a situation as mine” (Austen). Emma is acutely aware of the unique position she is in, and is unwilling to give up her wealth, power, and name through marriage. However, throughout the course of the novel, Emma ends up married anyways, presumably taking away all of those things from Emma’s grasp and leaving her without control.
Other female characters, like Harriet and Jane, are not in Emma’s unique position of economic prosperity and are therefore stripped of control throughout the novel. Things are constantly happening to them, rather than by their actions. Jane is coerced and pushed around by Mrs. Elton and Emma herself, and is placed at the mercy of Frank Churchill’s whims, as demonstrated when Frank sends Jane a pianoforte as an unwanted romantic gesture. “Its being ordered was absolutely unknown to Miss F-, who would never have allowed me to send it” (Austen 345). Had she had the choice, Jane Fairfax would have denied this extravagant display, but she simply has to endure it when it comes to her. Similarly, Harriet Smith is a character who has few choices allotted to her and is often pushed around by the people around her. Chiefly, Emma Woodhouse. Emma, almost entirely from thin air, plans to match Harriet with Mr. Elton, which backfires horribly when he makes his intent to marry Emma clear. Harriet clearly has affections toward Mr. Martin, but Emma convinces her to turn him down. Harriet’s social and love lives are determined by factors outside of her own control.
Hadestown, a broadway musical adaptation of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, also displays women in positions dictated by powers and relationships outside of their control. The show explores two different relationships: that of Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of Hades and Persephone. Hades is the king of the underworld, while Orpheus is a poor musician “up top”. Their partners, Persephone and Eurydice, are dependent on their male counterparts’ economic status and ability. Persephone, in the song, “Our Lady of the Underground,” laments her situation of being stuck in the underworld for six months out of the year. She expresses this feeling of being trapped when she sings, “I got the wind right here in a jar/ I got the rain on tap at the bar/ I got sunshine up on the shelf” (Mitchell). Persephone once was the embodiment of nature and freedom, but this freedom was restricted, as the natural elements would be, restricted and trapped in the unnatural jars and shelves. This occupation with what is and is not natural is demonstrated later on in the song, “Chant,” when Persephone derides the conditions of the underground, singing, “In the coldest time of year/ why is it so hot down here?/ Hotter than a crucible/ It ain’t right and it ain’t natural,” (Mitchell) to which Hades replies,
Lover, you were gone so long
Lover, I was lonesome
So I built a foundry…
Here, I fashioned things of steel
Oil drums and automobiles
Then I kept that furnace fed
With the fossils of the dead
Lover, when you feel that fire
Think of it as my desire
Think of it as my desire for you!
Though Hades is acting out of a desire to get back Persephone’s love, Persephone herself is trapped in an unnatural world and given things she does not want, similarly to Jane Fairfax receiving the pianoforte. The men’s attempt to provide material goods do not assuage the lack of choice the women have in the world or in what happens to them. When Persephone asks, “Brother what’s my name?” The people around her reply, “Our Lady of the Underground!” (Mitchell). Persephone is defined and restricted by her economic relationship to the underground and to her husband rather than on her own merit.
Eurydice is similarly restricted by her partner’s economic standing, though her economic status is opposite to Persephone’s. Early on in the musical, Eurydice’s wants are clearly outlined. In “Any Way the Wind Blows,” it is explained that “Eurydice was a hungry young girl” who resents her situation. She wants to stay with Orpheus and she wants stability. This is demonstrated in the song, “All I’ve Ever Known,” when she sings,
Say that you’ll hold me forever
Say that the wind won’t change on us
Say that we’ll stay with each other
And it will always be like this (Mitchell).
In “Any Way the Wind Blows,” however, she is denied agency and choice, demonstrated by the titular phrase, “any way the wind blows,” which represents Eurydice as being subject to the whims of the wind, a symbol of fate. The Fates are a physical representation of this predetermined path, both in the musical and in the original myths. The Fates reinforce Eurydice’s lack of choice when they sing, “And there ain’t a thing that you/can do/ when the weather takes a turn/ on you” (Mitchell). Eurydice must simply accept the control external forces have over her life. In the song, “Chant,” while Persephone is singing about her husband’s unnatural and unwanted extravagant wealth, Eurydice is singing to her love interest, Orpheus, who has been working on a song throughout the musical and is engrossed in his artistic endeavors. She sings, “Looking high and looking low/ for the food and firewood…I am keeping one eye on the sky and/ trying to trust that song he’s working on is gonna/ shelter us/ from the wind, the wind, the wind” (Mitchell). Eurydice is dependent on Orpheus’ abilities for her food and shelter, as well as the power to exert agency over fate and the winds. She shouts again and again, “shelter us,” and “harbor me,” as his protection is the only one available to her. Eurydice is not granted the freedom to pursue her simple wants from life: safety and warmth.
However, the external factors which strip these female figures of choice and control do not detract from the fact that these women still exert their agency despite the losses that they face. Each of these women still strive to make active choices from the ones they have been allotted and assert their will. For example, though the female characters in Emma are socially, economically, and culturally restricted in their ability to exercise their agency, they still make choices which determine the course of their lives. External forces strive to disempower them through marriage, but each of the women mentioned previously have a say in who they marry and what shape their lives will take. Jane Fairfax makes the decision to both keep Frank Churchill at arm’s length after he has offended her, asserting what little control she has in order to make an executive decision on her relationship, and then accepts his marriage proposal on her own terms. She also denies Mrs. Elton the power of dictating her life when she “closed with the offer” (Austen 347) of becoming a governess.
Similarly, Harriet, who has been manipulated and pushed around by many people throughout the novel and who depended on Emma to make every choice for her, ends the novel by marrying Mr. Martin: something she was instructed not to do by Emma. Harriet goes directly against the wishes of the person who most stripped her of her agency, and makes a choice based on her own wishes and desires.
Emma is the largest executor of will and agency in the novel. Claudia L. Johnson, in her essay, “Woman, Lovely Woman, Reigns Alone,” explores Emma’s power and feminine agency while refuting her critics. As she puts it, “…though [a critic] complains that Emma ‘plays God,’ what he really means is that she plays man, and he, as well as others, will not permit her thus to elude the contempt that is woman’s portion, do what she may” (Johnson 125). Emma exercises powers that are outside of the agency typically granted to women, and this garners her much criticism. Johnson states, “Emma’s anomalous status as a moral agent is owing entirely to her self love,” (Johnson 126). Her actions are what drive the story forward, and although Emma does eventually get married, she does so on her terms: “a very short parley with her own heart produced the most solemn resolution of never quitting her father,” (Austen 341) so Mr.Knightley decides to move into Emma’s estate, Hartfield. In this way, Emma can have both worlds, unlike Miss Churchill. Emma can care for her father while being married to the man she loves. She can be married to the man she loves without losing her domain over which she has the utmost control.
The female characters in Hadestown also exercise whatever control they do have. Persephone makes the most of her time outside of the underworld. The song, “Living it Up on Top” shows her exerting her control and will, helping herself and others to live to their fullest while they can. The shadow of returning to the underworld looms over her, but she still exercises what she has while she has it. Eurydice, after Orpheus fails to shelter her, decides to seek her own way out in the song, “Gone, I’m Gone”. It is Eurydice’s choice to go to the underground, a large deviation from the original myth, in which Eurydice dies, and is transported to the underworld. In the original myth, Orpheus and his choices are what drive the story forward. In the adaptation, it is Eurydice’s actions and choices that propel the narrative. She is not a subject of the conditions thrown at her, but an active participant.
It is inarguable that these texts depict female characters without power, without choice. What is then left to be determined, however, is whether the texts themselves endorse such docility. Such determination is not possible without consideration of the metatextual contexts under which they are written. These texts do not simply display women in their struggles for agency. They embody them, as literary products of female writers. For example, Sappho asserts her agency through the text itself, rather than through the happenings within them. As Alexandra Leewon Schultz writes in her essay, “Language and Agency in Sappho’s Brothers Poem,” “except in wedding songs, Sappho never addresses a man. In poem after poem, she speaks to and recalls conversations with women… but never does she bestow her words on a man, nor do the words of men intrude in her songs” (Schultz 132). Though the content of her poetry depicts women losing control or lacking the ability to take action on their wants, the text of her poetry itself is subversive and empowering in its existence as poetry that centers the female voice and gaze. Sappho is acutely aware of her place in history, as demonstrated when she writes, “someone will remember us/ I say/ even in another time” (Sapph 147). By choosing to share her poetry and sing her songs, Sappho places herself into the stream of history and asserts her place in the world.
Jane Austen also exercises power through Emma’s existence. As Johnson writes, “Austen does not allude to the tradition of political fiction as regularly in Emma as she does elsewhere, but such relative silence does not signify an abandonment of the political tradition. In fact… At the height of her powers, Austen steps into her own authority… and she participates in the political tradition of fiction, not by qualifying or critiquing it from within, but rather by trying to write from its outsides” (Johnson 129). Austen does not need to address political issues by moralizing from the plot events of her novel, as she asserts political power through the existence of the novel and of Emma’s character. Emma’s being as a force that drives her own narrative is Austen’s way of exerting power where limited agency is lended to her.
Similarly, Hadestown exerts power through the choice made by Anais Mitchell to tell the story. Hadestown is preoccupied with its form as a tragedy. The very beginning of the show, through a song called “Road to Hell,” the story begins, trumpets playing, with Hermes narrating: “Once upon a time there was a railroad line… It’s an old song/ It’s an old tale from way back when/ It’s an old song/ And we’re gonna sing it again” (Mitchell). This line refers to the fact that the show is an adaptation of an ancient myth, a myth that many know and more have been exposed to through retellings and evolutions of the same story. However, because it is an adaptation, the audience members still sit through the whole show, despite knowing exactly how it ends. Orpheus will turn back, and lose Eurydice. Audience members nonetheless hope every time that it may turn out different, and it is this exercise of hope that Anais Mitchell highlights. The aforementioned line takes on a new meaning near the end of the show, after Orpheus loses Eurydice, when the familiar notes of the trumpets from the “Road to Hell” begin to play, this time in the “Road to Hell (Reprise)”. Hermes sings,
It’s a sad song,
It’s a sad tale
It’s a tragedy…
But we sing it anyway
‘Cause here’s the thing
To know how it ends
And still begin to sing it again
As if it might turn out this time
I learned that from a friend of mine
And begins to narrate the very beginning of the show again. The emphasis is on the choice to tell the story, despite knowing its ending. The ending does not matter so much as the choices the characters, and the writer, make along the way. Anais Mitchell holds power by choosing to adapt this ancient myth and give its female characters more say over their stories.
According to Kabeer, “agency in relation to empowerment… implies not only actively exercising choice, but also doing this in ways that challenge power relations” (Kabeer 14). In these terms, it is difficult to say that the characters shown in Sappho’s poetry, Jane Austen’s Emma, or Anais Mitchell’s Hadestown experience empowerment in their assertions of agency, as “empowerment entails change” (Kabeer 14), and the characters are not allowed the resources to make it meaningfully. However, in a metatextual framework, the authors of these texts are able to exercise literary and political power and assert agency that challenges the existing power structures of their time. By choosing to tell the stories they told in the ways that they told them, Sappho, Austen, and Mitchell are able to demonstrate female power and connect through disparate periods of time and geological space, as well as influence the present.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Emma (Oxford World’s Classics). 5th ed., Oxford University Press, 2022.
Kabeer, Naila. “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: A Critical Analysis of the Third Millennium Development Goal 1.” Gender & Development, vol. 13, no. 1, 2005, pp. 13–24. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1080/13552070512331332273.
Mitchell, Anais. “Hadestown (Original Broadway Cast Recording) by Anaïs Mitchell.” Genius, genius.com/albums/Anais-mitchell/Hadestown-original-broadway-cast-recording. Accessed 25 Apr. 2022.
Sappho, and Anne Carson. If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho. Reprint, Vintage, 2003.
Schultz, Alexandra Leewon. “Language and Agency in Sappho’s Brothers Poem.” Helios, vol. 48, no. 2, 2021, pp. 113–43. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.1353/hel.2021.0007.
Stafford, Fiona. Jane Austen’s Emma: A Casebook (Casebooks in Criticism). Critical ed., Oxford University Press, 2007.