Is Hades A Flat Caricature? (ft. Hadestown, again)

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(Happy St. Patrick's Day from the part-Irish blogger who Does Not Care About Theming Her Posts Around The Day They're Posted.)

It's been a minute...maybe you thought I was done talking about Hadestown? Nope! Not a chance. (Okay, it helps that I wrote this post in advance, but still. Hadestown isn't something I'm going to stop thinking about easily.)

So, Hades, in Hadestown, has a song. 

It's called "Why We Build The Wall". 

Obviously, this may remind some people of some political figure, but since I have a general rule about not talking politics on my blog, we're not going to talk about that. 

What we are going to talk about is how that song sparked a worry in my little obsessive brain that Hades was basically just a flat, one-dimensional caricature of said political figure, and that that would shape the course of the rest of the musical, and that it would turn into just a political commentary. (It was a storytelling concern.)

Well, I'm here to tell you why that's not true. 

Or, okay, maybe I'm here to tell you that I don't think that's true, and here are my reasons. 

(First of all, the song dates all the way back to 2006, but while that is an extremely satisfying corroboration of my points, it's not a main point.)

Hades and his whole underground empire actually make me think more of the company towns of the 19th century--you know, the ones where people had to pay the exorbitant prices the company demanded and couldn't call their souls their own--than any current political figure. The ones like in this song:

Everyone who lived in those places chose to live there--but usually because of life circumstances that made it necessary. Even though people who worked for companies in the song could sorta technically leave maybe? they really couldn't, because they didn't have resources to do so. 

"St. Peter doncha call me/Cuz I can't go/I owe my soul to the company store."

Similarly, though we don't know much about most of the other people in Hadestown, Eurydice goes down because she has nothing to eat, nothing to keep her warm. She's destitute. So, she signs herself away, to work her life away, for something to eat. 

"Everything and everyone in Hadestown I own/...But I only buy what others choose to sell/...She signed the deal herself./And now she belongs to me."

She signs herself over to Hades and is trapped in Hadestown in the same way that destitute workers of the 19th century were trapped in company towns--by paperwork and lack of money. 

Hades is the one who buys her. He's Not A Good Guy, obviously--but he's still human, and not one-dimensional.

Ultimately, I think Hades is humanized through his relationship with Persephone. I think his relationship with Persephone is perhaps the thing which makes him most three-dimensional, even if I've already made the point that he's not a caricature of that one political figure. (I hope I've made that point, at least!

In the beginning of their relationship, he loved Persephone. Maybe still does, deep down. But their relationship has become fraught. Partially maybe because they spend half of the year apart. 

"He thinks of his wife in the arms of the sun/And jealousy fuels him, and feeds him, and fills him/With doubt that she'll ever come/Dread that she'll never come/Doubt that his lover will ever come back."

(Incidentally, that line reminds me of Code Name Verity, when the German general quotes the German poem about Isolde in the sun...which sometimes makes me tear up. Just a little.)

It's not that Persephone is actually in the arms of the sun (Apollo), either. She's in the sunlight, but there's no other man in her life. But Hades is jealous and afraid. 

He begins to build the wall to drown out the song of love, to wall himself off from Persephone. He's so afraid to be hurt by her return--or lack thereof--or maybe the possibility that she doesn't want to come back--that he builds walls, real and metaphorical, around himself, around his love. He forgets. He forgets what love truly means. He's worried that if he does, he could be hurt. He would rather be indifferent than feel love, if it means that he won't be hurt.

"With a million hands, he builds a wall/And drown[s] out the sound of the song he once heard."

He can still get his wife back whenever he wants. There's a great line where Persephone complains "you're early!" and he responds, in his deep-as-hades voice "I missed ya". And she goes with him. But he doesn't trust her, doesn't believe that she'll always come with him. He's afraid. And instead of truly loving her, without jealousy, he wants to hold on as tight as he can. He advises Orpheus:

"If you want to hold a woman, son/Hang a chain around her throat/Made of many-carat gold/Shackle her from wrist to wrist/With sterling silver bracelets/Fill her pockets full of stones/Precious ones, diamonds/Bind her with a golden band/Take it from an old man."

To no one's surprise, this approach doesn't make Persephone happier to see him.

"Lover, what have you become?/I don't know you anymore!"

Orpheus, though, sees what has happened in Hades's heart, and sings this song to him:

"Where is the man with his arms outstretched/To the woman he loves?"

Arms outstretched, open, not grasping, but allowing her to come to him. (Just like Orpheus & Eurydice's choreography.) Orpheus demolishes the walls that Hades has built around his heart, points out that his fear and grasping have destroyed his relationship with Persephone...but the song has hope that Hades can still recover the love he once had. 

And the rusty chambers of his heart begin to work again. Maybe. 

"Brother, you know what they did? They danced."

They dance, Hades and Persephone. I could probably write a whole post about how beautiful it is that a dance renews their love, how a dance is used as a metaphor for marriage, how it can hearken back to a courtship, and so on. But I'm not going to. It's enough that they do dance.

Yet, Hades is still scared. He's still protecting his heart. When Persephone leaves for the year, he wants to believe that they'll be able to preserve this fresh start. But he's not sure. 

"And how 'bout you and I?/Are we going to try again?"

"It's time for Spring/We'll try again next fall."

"Wait for me?"

"I will."

In something that sounds almost like a renewal of wedding vows, he promises to wait for her. But he doesn't make any promises about trying again right away. He's still holding something back. Just a little.

But I like to believe that when she comes back, they do try again, and he remembers how beautiful it is to stretch his arms out to the woman he loves and make himself vulnerable for her.

It's this interplay between doubt and love, possessiveness and despair, jealousy and forced indifference, that makes Hades so human, three-dimensional. He is certainly not anywhere close to a flat caricature. Let alone a flat caricature of any politician. 

Who's your favorite character in Hadestown, if you have one? Favorite song? Can you relate to Hades? Because I sure can.