Love Story by Taylor Swift Homework

1. Love Story by Taylor Swift is of a actual love story between the two characters of Romeo and Juliet and their forbidden love. It becomes lonely and heart breaking to Juliet as she ravels upon whether or not Romeo actually loves her and if he still wants to be with her. She waits and waits and most of the time he doesn’t come – she doesn’t know what to think, is he still in love with her or does he want to end it? The evidence to the plot is shown most in the quotation of stanza 9,

“Romeo save me, I’ve been feeling so alone

I keep waiting for you but you never come

Is this in my head, I don’t know what to think”.

Swift has produced a song/poem upon the love and hope of the well-known story of Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare showing their illicit love.

 

2. The poem Love Story by Taylor Swift is titled “Love Story” because that is the main subject matter of the poem. It shows the happy ending of being a prince and princess longing for each other and eventually being together.

“I’ll be waiting, all there is left to do is runYou’ll be the prince and I’ll be the princessIt’s a love story, baby, just say yes”.

The love story has hope and strength as the distance makes them uncertain but as they all say, the more distance the more fond the heart is.

“I got tired of waiting, wondering if you were ever coming around

My faith in you was fading

When I met you on the outskirts of town”.

The reasonable title chosen by Swift fits the poem perfectly as it actually talks about a love story between the two characters of Romeo and Juliet a tragedy written by Shakespeare.

 

3.The relationship between Romeo and Juliet is a strong teenaged love, and possibly first love. Of which everyone knows how that feels and how it feels when you part. Romeo and Juliet are deeply in love with each other,

“Romeo, save me, they’re trying to tell me how to feel, This love is difficult, but it’s real,Don’t be afraid, we’ll make it out of this mess,It’s a love story, baby just say yes

 …

Marry me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone,I love you and that’s all I ever know”

They make it through, they have held their love for each other and they have made it through their forbidden love together .

 

4. The evidence shown within the poem by Taylor Swift that the two lovers have really made it and have manage to overcome the obstacles in their forbidden love. Shown in the quotation, their love is shown forbidden by Juliet’s father,

“And my daddy said stay away from JulietBut you were everything to me I was begging you please don’t go”

The father seems to be the main antagonist of the love story but in the end, Romeo finds his way through. He has asked her father for her hand whilst she waited, longing for Romeo to come. When out of the blue, he has proposed and they have been destined to live together forever.

“I talked to you dad, you’ll pick out a white dress, It’s a love story, baby, just say yes”.

It would be considered that the two lovers have went through the obstacles of a forbidden love together due to the evidence found within the poem by Swift.

 

5. The themes explored through the poem and the music clip shows the following themes:

·       Love at first sight

·         Hope

·         Joy

·         Passion

·         Heart break

·         Forbidden love

They are shown in many ways in the lyrics and the clip such as joy and love is shown when they run into each other’s arms and can finally be together. Love when they first meet at the party, the love at first sight catches them and lures them in. Patience and sadness is shown in the scene of when Juliet is waiting on the balcony, waiting for her Juliet and joy for when he finally comes. The themes are relatively clear in the love story in Taylor Swift’s poem and music video.

 

6. The love story within the song ends differently than William Shakespeare’s play. Shakespeare has originally written a tragedy of which both Romeo and Juliet die. It is seen by Romeo seeing Juliet’s fake dead body where she actually took a potion to stop her heart and for when Juliet wakes up and sees Romeo dead by a poison. Unable to live without him, she commits suicide by stabbing herself or in the film adaption, shoots herself. Whilst Taylor Swift has made a different approach, leaving a happy ending, which is the purpose to her decision as she would have wanted a love story not a tragedy story. Or else she would have had to change the title as it wouldn’t fit, she would have to change it to “tragic love story” or “the tragic love”, etc. The perspective is coming a teenaged girl’s point of view, ie Juliet. Most teenaged girls believe in love and they have a more emotional side to love than men, Swift would have wanted the teenaged girls to hear a happy ending. As most people I know, prefer that ending then the ending written by Shakespeare, although he longed for a dramatic ending.