Taylor Swift’s folklore: Part 2
So the battleships will sink beneath the waves
“You wear the same jewels that I gave you as you bury me” —my tears ricochet
Taylor Swift’s folklore is about love and betrayal. In Part 1, characters were blinded by the lavender haze. In Part 2, the knife slices through the fog. And it’s bloody.
hoax, illicit affairs, & exile
Betrayal plays out in hoax as heartbreak and breach of trust. The narrator references betrayal from the outside world and from an ex-lover, whom she talks to directly: “you knew it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart.” Perhaps she was “pulled apart” publicly.
“Deception is the only felony.”
But she isn’t as phased by the outward hit as she is by the partner she “let you in the door:” “what you did was just as dark darling, this was just as hard.” Breach of trust is worse than the actual offending incident.
What’s worse is the past tense “you knew.” The offending lover knew the betrayal would hurt and did it anyway. As another musician (who may or may not be related to all this) puts it, “deception is the only felony, so never fuck nobody without telling me” (No Church in the Wild). That singer doesn’t care if his girlfriend sleeps around…he cares if she lies about it.
Despite the betrayal, the narrator of hoax is still pulled to her ex: “Don’t want no other shade of blue but you” and “you have beaten my heart” (hoax). “Beaten my heart” could have different meanings. Maybe the ex is the entity that kept the narrator’s heart beating or maybe the ex beat, as in pummeled, the narrator’s heart. Both could be true.
Our young girl in illicit affairs feels this same tug after heartbreak, though it seems one-sided in this case: “You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else.” It sounds like the significant other will see colors again just fine. The song reminds me of Beyonce’s Daddy Lessons: “Baby girl, he’s playing you,” rings similar to “Don’t call me kid, don’t call me baby, look at this idiotic fool that you made me.” She’s pissed, she’s betrayed, but she’s still hooked: “For you I would ruin myself…a million little times.”
“Rosé flowing with your chosen family” - the 1
Why are all these lovers, with so much turmoil between them, still drawn to each other? The answer might lie in a metaphor that runs through the album: “you’re not my homeland anymore,” “you were my town,” “I can go anywhere I want, anywhere I want just not home,” “This has frozen my ground,” “My barren land,” and “I left a part of me back in New York,” (exile, my tears ricochet, hoax).
The metaphor of relationships as land is most prominent in exile, a song Swift co-wrote with her at-the-time-partner, pen-named William Bowery. The song is about two lovers who have grown apart and mean. They don’t mention good times, just bitter jabs that wreak of old arguments: “so who am I offending now?” and “you didn’t even hear me out.” Perhaps they give “second, third, and hundredth chances” to each other because the relationship is their motherland.
We don’t know how the relationships in hoax or exile started, but they both grow into gravitational forces that pull the couples together even when it hurts.
my tears ricochet & mad woman
Two people are also bound together irreversibly in my tears ricochet (arguably one of Swift’s best songs) and mad woman. Both explore the unbreakable tie between two people whose relationship has not just gone sour, but lethal.
It sounds like someone she was close with had a pivotal role in her public downfall.
We know there used to be love: “I swear I loved you,” “Cause when I’d fight, you used to tell me I was brave,” and “crossing out the good years” (my tears ricochet). Good years did exist. They used to support each other. But now, these characters “strike to kill” and don’t care if they have to sink the entire ocean to hit back (mad woman).
We don’t get particulars about the betrayal beyond “you took everything from me” and “when you can’t sleep at night you hear my stolen lullabies,” both likely references to Swift losing the rights to her first six studio albums (mad woman, my tears). These two songs embody the personal and public betrayal-combo Swift has been referencing this album and will continue to reference in many albums to come. It sounds like someone she was close with had a pivotal role in her public downfall. Regardless of the particulars, betrayal and annihilation are consistent in both stories.
"And women like hunting witches, too" - mad woman
With that, the offending partner (people?) strikes. The betrayal is so bad, the narrator likens it to her death: “We gather here, we line up weeping,” “my dying day,” “as you bury me,” “if I’m dead” and “at the wake” (my tears).
The narrator describes herself as provoked to action: “You’ll poke that bear til her claws come out” (mad woman) and “You know I didn’t want to have to haunt you” (my tears).
They are so connected that to hurt the other is to hurt themselves.
Regardless of who dolled the first blow, they both want to destroy each other now: “you can aim at my heart, go for blood” (my tears) and “my cannons all firing at your yacht” (mad woman). They are so connected that to hurt the other is to hurt themselves: “if I’m on fire you’ll be made of ashes too” (my tears). This is similar to the bond in Beyonce’s Lemonade: “when you hurt me you hurt yourself” (Don’t Hurt Yourself).
The obsession is mutual. The partner is too obsessed to skip the narrator’s metaphorical funeral, “If I’m dead to you why are you at the wake?” (my tears) and the narrator won’t let go, either: “they say move on but you know I won’t” (mad woman).
The narrator’s obsession feels more thoughtful and restrained, “I’m taking my time, taking my time,” though still irate, “You know I will [strike to kill]” (mad woman). The partner’s obsession is more myopic, frantic, and self-damaging: “you turned into your worst fears,” “flying around,” and “drunk on this pain” (my tears). The partner is also dependent on the narrator: “you can aim for my heart, go for blood, but you would still miss me in your bones” (my tears). The partner even continues to wear her gifts: “you wear the same jewels that I gave you as you bury me” (my tears). Either the partner misses her too much to part with the jewels or has nothing valuable alone. All the sparkle comes from her.
“Sequins smile, black lipstick” - cardigan
It’s like the narrator is high up, spotting just the right domino to tip and watching it spiral into an avalanche that crushes the other person, whether that’s an ex-lover or an ex-business partner. The titular line “look at how my tears ricochet” is detached. She knows that even while trying to destroy her, the partner needs her, and will ultimately self-destruct.
The partner doesn’t have the maturity of foresight and she doesn’t have the luxury of letting loose.
The narrator is not restrained for lack of feeling. She cares and she wants to hit back, “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace” (my tears). But when she shows emotion, she’s undercut, “every time you call me crazy I get more crazy” and “when you say I seem angry, I get more angry” (mad woman). She’s restrained because she wants to win. She flat out says, “No one likes a mad woman.”
On top of that, the offending partner is trying to appear as “the hero” (my tears). This heroism is a facade: “saving face” (my tears) and “the master of spin” (mad woman). When we do bad things, we have to work really hard to make ourselves appear ‘good.’ The partner doesn’t have the maturity of foresight and she doesn’t have the luxury of letting loose.
Finally, the earth is scorched. Both parties end up metaphorically dead, “you had to kill me but it killed you just the same” (my tears). The question is, who will rise from the ashes?
Check out part 3 to find out.
"Look at how my tears ricochet"
