If I were ever tempted to write a fanfic story set after the end of Dr Who season four, it would have to be a ‘careful what you wish for‘ story about Rose and the newly-minted half-human Doctor.
At the end of season four Rose is very much in the same situation as HD’s Eurydice, “condemned forever to a myth that glorifies her lover at her expense” (Bruzelius 1998).
A bit of background.
First, you need to read a summary of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.
While escaping from Hades, Orpheus turns back to look at Eurydice — to see his own success reflected in her presence. By looking at her, he condemns her to eternity in the Underworld. Yet, as she is drawn back into Hades, Eurydice realises:
“Against the black
I have more fervour
than you in all the splendour of that place,
against the blackness
and the stark grey
I have more light…” (HD)
In a series of poems, ending with Eurydice, HD criticises the male gaze. She:
“…gives enraged speech to its object, the female occasion of the male poetic/ erotic lament: her Eurydice furiously rates Orpheus for his carelessness and egoism. But the same myth that allows her to imagine a powerful woman speaker ultimately constrains that speaker’s voice: Eurydice speaks, but only finally to affirm that the limited economy of the gaze allows her no escape from the hell she inhabits. In the fatal geography of this primal myth of the gaze, the woman who occasions the story exists only to become its absent center. Eurydice understands, as Orpheus and Pygmalion never do, that the gaze of the artist does not supply the light, but the look of the artist is the only meaning available to her.” (Bruzelius 1998)
Now, I love the Doctor. No doubts about that. Always have. But he is a male character, and he does draw his strength and his legitimacy from the male gaze, from his ability to name and classify and manipulate and control the people around him. Always has.
As long as she continues to pine for the restoration of her original relationship with the Doctor, Rose and the half-human Doctor cannot be happy together. Rose needs to let go (emotionally) of the ‘real’ Doctor first, and that means she needs to see the reality of his behavior towards her. When he deposits Rose in a parallel world and charges her with playing nursemaid to a (hybrid, imperfect) copy of himself, the Doctor is concerned not about Rose’s emotions or about what’s best for her. He’s concerned only with maintaining his own freedom, ensuring his own convenience.
Rose won’t want to admit this, but it will will always be there, always come to mind when she looks at the hybrid Doctor. And one more obstacle to this nascent relationship: the hybrid Doctor is part human — specifically, part Donna Noble. For Rose, this would be like dating the Doctor’s brother, or cousin: there’s a family resemblance but the two men are different and individual. Realistically, how long can Rose settle for second-best before she leaves him in order to grieve for the original? And what happens after that?
Well, there’s a version of the myth in which Eurydice tells Orpheus to go away, not to bargain for her release from the Underworld, because her experiences there have changed her and she feels no need to return to the Overworld.
For people who have big hearts and true regard for each other, breaking up isn’t necessarily the end of a relationship.
People can change. Experiences change us.
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode…
References:
HD “Eurydice”. Web ‘study’ version with links by William Beebe, Virginia Commonwealth University.
Margaret Bruzelius “H.D. and Eurydice – woman author Hilda Doolittle; mythologic character“. Twentieth Century Literature (Winter 1998). Accessed at FindArticles.com. 20 December 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0403/is_4_44/ai_54370330
Doctor Who, season four (2008). BBC Television.
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