Friday, October 23, 2015

"She Loves You"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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Back in August when I listened to Anthology 1, I finally understood a line in "She Loves You" that I'd previously been unable to comprehend.  It's the third line in the third verse:  "Pride can hurt you too."

At the time, I realized that because of the too/two homophone, this line could be either "Pride can hurt you too" (probably the more obvious meaning) or "Pride can hurt you two," as in "Pride can hurt the two people in this relationship."

To-day I happened to re-read my reminder to myself to get around to writing about this, and I realized that there's more to that line than I originally thought.  There is that too/two homophone, but the key to which meaning is meant lays in the "Pride" earlier in the line.  A prideful person would be more likely to perceive the "you" as the singular you where a less prideful person would understand it as the plural you.  A prideful person would think of their self alone where a less prideful person would think about other people and the relationship between them.

Between the ambiguous you and too/two, it's a really clever line that could be interpreted in different ways.