The Gaze of Orpheus is both a loss (of primordial polymorphous, autoerotic wholeness) and an ‘achieved anxiety’ (a precocious anticipation of an impossible maturity or return to wholeness” (Linder 82) The Gaze of Orpheus The Gaze of Orpheus is derived from the antiquarian Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Following his descent into the Underworld Orpheus disobeys Hades’ and Persephone’s condition for release of his wife Eurydice. "To you this tale refers, Who seek to lead your mind Into the upper day; For he who overcome should turn back his gaze Towards the Tartarean cave, Whatever excellence he takes with him He loses when
The Wife of His Youth move into the future. Though the story has been traditionally read as having a happy ending, Wachtell emphasizes that 'Liza has no final lines which show her response to the husband who had forgotten her. Henry B. Wonham notes a significance to Ryder's referring to 'Liza not simply as wife but "the wife of my youth", as if dissociating from her even as he acknowledges her. The Wife of His Youth "The Wife of His Youth" is a short story by American author Charles W. Chesnutt, first published in July 1898. It later served as the title story of the