If you’re a swiftie that loves breaking down every single lyric from Taylor Swift’s songs then you’ll realize that these three songs from Folklore are from the same love story just from three different people and their point of views. James, Betty and August. Their story is set in high school with James and Betty being a couple and James cheating on Betty with August. Let’s start with the first song, Cardigan from Betty’s point of view when she’s older.
Cardigan
The lyrics symbolically represent that level of maturity you reach when you live in a big city, we’re guessing New York because “high heels on cobblestones”. But the song says that even though Betty is grown up now, she recalls the passionate romance she had with James in high school and she knew it was real with the lyrics, “And when I felt like I was an old cardigan under someone’s bed, you put me on and said I was your favorite”. It’s just the heartbreak and the cheating that ended the relationship they had. Although the songs are pretty nebulous regarding whether they’re related, our swiftie brains are on another level and we all put those hand to use to find out things. Even though Betty looks back on this relationship with some fond memories, she does acknowledge that there was heartbreak and emotional scars she’d carry with her until she was way older( I knew you‘d haunt all of my what- if’s). She also knew that James would come back to her asking for forgiveness and to take her back and that’s how she ends the song and how we’ll pick up with “Betty“, the song James dedicated to her but this is right when the cheating happened so it’s at the beginning of the timeline.
Betty
James is honestly in the wrong here. He was in high school and “he’s only seventeen” but that still doesn’t take away from the fact that he betrayed Betty with August during the summer before school started. Honestly, I don’t even know how Taylor comes up with these intricate storylines. It’s like a book. He starts the song set in class after summer and after they’ve broken up with the lyrics “Betty, I won’t make assumptions about why you switched your homeroom, but I think it’s cause of me”. Obviously Betty doesn‘t want to see the guy who broke her heart, so she’s switched homerooms. James is telling us the story of what happened in the bridge with the lyric, “She said, James get in, let’s drive and days turned into nights, slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long”. I do like how James knows he’s wrong but he still loves her and wants to come back in the chorus when he says, “But if I just showed up at your party, would you have me, would you want me, would you tell me to go fuck myself or lead me to the garden, in the garden would you trust me, if i told you it was just a summer thing, I’m only seventeen, I don’t know anything, but I know I miss you”. Another little bit in the song that connects with Betty is “I was walking home on broken cobblestones, just thinking of you”. With the summer lyric the song connects with August our final song in the love triangle.
August
August is our final character in the love story. She is the girl that James cheated on Betty with in the summer before school. The reason I think the songs are connected is because in Betty James said, “She said, James get in and I dreamt of you all summer long” and here August says, “ Remember when I pulled up and said get in the car and so much for summer love and will you call when you’re back at school“ You can’t tell me there’s no way they’re not connected, right? What’s funny is that August still loves James and even though they’re not together she acknowledges she was forward with him and she ignited the relationship and she doesn’t want it to end. This is probably the 2nd song on the timeline before Cardigan being the last one.
Conclusion
So with all this information on the songs and the lyrics to back up these theories, I would say we have a solid chance of saying it’s a love triangle and all three characters have a so with their own points of views. You know, it’s very interesting to me to see Taylor’s songwriting abilities being shown in every song she writes. She has such a creative mind and range with her writing that it can interest anyone. There’s something for every genre that just makes Taylor such a unique artist and I admire that about her. I hope you enjoyed this articl, let me know about other things you’d like to see in the comments, love you all!
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