Summary
In this stanza, Mrs Midas continues to separate herself from her husband. She requires that he sleep in the spare room, where he turns the furniture to gold as soon as he touches it. She also puts a chair against their bedroom door, afraid that he will enter and turn her into gold. Mrs Midas reflects on the early days of her marriage, when she used to kiss and embrace her husband. Now, she fears his kiss because it would turn her into gold.
Analysis
This stanza utilizes dual meanings and symbols to continue describing the effects of Midas’s wish. Mrs Midas describes herself as “near petrified” after she puts a chair against their bedroom door to prevent Midas from entering. The word “petrified” has two possible meanings, both of which are applicable in this line: “so frightened that one is unable to move; terrified” and organic matter that is “changed into a stony substance; ossified” (see the Oxford English Dictionary). Both apply to Mrs Midas’s situation. She is “near petrified” because she is so terrified of her husband that she is almost unable to move; but she is also literally near petrification, since on the other side of the door is a man who could turn her into gold with a touch. This description of Mrs Midas’s fear and pain is contrasted with the early days of her relationship with her husband, when they would “unwrap each other, rapidly, like presents, fast food.” As with the reference to petrification—which is typically applied to organic objects, such as ‘petrified wood,’ not to people—these lines use a form of simile that operates as a reverse personification. Mrs Midas and her husband are described as objects (presents and fast food), which plays on Midas’s new ability to turn people into golden objects. The use of the word “halcyon” to describe the early days of the Midas's marriage also carries a double meaning. Merriam Webster defines "halcyon" as an adjective describing “happiness, great success, and prosperity: golden – often used to describe an idyllic time in the past.” The word “golden” is used metaphorically in this definition to refer to a happy time period described with nostalgia. However, it is also given new, ironic meaning in the context of the poem due to Mr Midas’s wish.
In addition to rhetorically playing on words with double meanings, this stanza also makes an allusion to “the tomb of Tutankhamun,” drawing from an ancient tradition outside of Greek mythology. This is a reference to the Egyptian tomb of King Tutankhamun, a famous ancient site in Egypt. The Egyptians buried their kings with massive amounts of treasures and riches, including many golden shrines, jewelry, and statutes. In the context of the poem, this allusion also carries a double meaning. The husband is locked in a “tomb,” symbolizing his isolation and his association with death, as his relationship is doomed and Midas himself is doomed to death with his new difficulties in eating or drinking. Tut himself was encased in a gold sarcophagus, directly mirroring the myth of Midas. All of the gold cannot save Tut from the process of death and mummification, just as Midas’s wish cannot resolve his problems. The husband is literally trapped in a golden tomb, like Tut.
Finally, the reference to fast food further establishes the modern setting of the poem, as the term “fast food” was not coined until the mid-nineteenth century (for example, McDonald's did not open until 1948, and Burger King and Taco Bell opened in the 1950s). This detail further establishes that the poem is a subtle retelling of the myth of Midas from a feminist perspective, not a direct retelling set in ancient Greece. While this setting has been hinted at throughout the poem, Stanza 7 further clarifies the time and place.
