Taylor Swift’s evermore: Part 2
Time and space are flexible in evermore. The women are not.
"But I come back stronger than a 90's trend" - willow
Willow & Ivy
In willow and ivy, a witchy woman and a cheating wife will do anything for men they can’t quite pin down.
Both women have sharp first impressions of their men: “I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones” and “I’m like the water when your ship rolled in that night, rough on the surface but you cut through like a knife” (ivy, willow). If love is the ocean, the narrator of willow was recovering from a previous “rough” heartbreak when this new ship “rolled in.”
Possession plays a major role in these relationships. The narrator of ivy says she belongs to her lover, not her husband, “he wants what's only yours.” The narrator of willow asserts, “that’s my man.”
"You know that my train can take you home" - willow
I think we sometimes assert things we know aren’t true. We’re trying to convince ourselves.
For instance, in willow, he won’t spend time with her, let alone hold her hand: “begging for you to take my hand, wreck my plans.” Yes, willow trees represent flexibility, “life was a willow and it bent right to your wind,” and resiliency, “I come back stronger than a 90’s trend,” but willows also represent grief. The narrator may want this man really badly, “if there was one prize I’d cheat to win,” may manipulate him into it, “every bait and switch was a work of art,” may even drug him into it, “head on the pillow I could feel you sinking in,” but something tells me she doesn’t quite have him. She’s mourning him while chasing him (hello weeping willow). We don’t chase things that are ours. They flow naturally, like the branches of a willow.
The women of evermore will do literally whatever it takes to get what they want—cheat, con, kill, whatever.
The narrator of ivy is also “grieving for the living.” She is “promised to another,” but bold in her infidelity, at one point daring her lover to “drink my husband’s wine.”
Ivy is not easy to get rid of and overtakes whatever it covers: “my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now I’m covered in you.” Ivy’s stubborn clinging can represent devotion, which makes me think this character is just as hooked as the woman in willow. She doesn’t view this extramarital affair as shallow, “it’s a war” and “a fire.” She’s steadfast, but also skirts all responsibility, “you started it” and “I can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland.” Umm…yes she could stop that. She blames her lover and feels no guilt.
"And drink my husband's wine" - ivy
Desire & Determination
These aren’t the only women on the album who will do literally whatever it takes to get what they want—cheat, con, kill whatever.
It’s bad for husbands to cheat and kill in evermore, but fine for women to do it.
In no body, no crime, the narrator avenges her friend’s murder by killing the friend’s cheating husband. In cowboy like me, a conwoman locks down her dream man. These women may be driven by love (for a friend or lover), but they’re relentless: “I wasn’t letting up until the day he died” and “forever is the sweetest con.” No rules, no guilt.
Wrongdoing is as slippery as time in evermore. It’s bad for husbands to cheat and kill, but fine for women to do it.
And yet there are still more women of evermore who are “f***** in the head”—champagne problem’s narrator recognizes she broke her boyfriend’s heart (“your heart was glass I dropped it”), but doesn’t flinch for a second when turning down his marriage proposal. She knows what she wants and follows it. Expectations and other people’s feelings be damned.
"And the ladies lunching have their stories about when you passed through town" - cowboy like me
The same for our character Dorothea, who wants a career “selling makeup and magazines” so badly, she’ll sacrifice her own happiness to get it: “the heart I know I'm breaking is my own” (dorothea, ‘tis the damn season).
Autonomy, conviction, and instinct are far more powerful in evermore than laws or morals. There is no right or wrong. There is just desire and determination.
Swift herself might be the most determined woman on the album. She gives us a hint of where this comes from in marjorie. Her late grandmother Marjorie, a former opera singer, leaves all her “closets of backlogged dreams” to Swift, suggesting Swift’s career might be the culmination of a generations-long family fulfillment. Maybe her grandmother’s lessons of power and politeness, cleverness and kindness, were especially influential during the time Swift wrote evermore, the same time she began re-recording her first six studio albums.
When Swift sings, “you’re alive, you’re alive in my head,” life and death, granddaughter and grandmother, are not so delineated. Even Swift is not sure who exactly is singing, “if I didn’t know better, I’d think you were singing to me now.”
The women of evermore will do whatever it takes to get what they want. But what happens when we want a relationship that is bad for us? Even hurting us? Read Part 3 to find out.
"Your hometown skeptics called it champagne problems."
This is Part 2 of 3 about Taylor Swift’s album evermore.
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