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What if You Learned Your Favorite Love Song was Actually About Rape?
Thoughts on ambiguity and the duty to confront it
If you’re a certain age, chances are you listened to The Decembrists in college. My favorite Decembrists song was always We Both Go Down Together, which tells the story of two star-crossed lovers in Victorian England. Coming from separate social classes, their parents reject their union, and the young couple commits suicide.
The song actually begins with the lovers leaping off the cliffs of Dover, then tells their story in flashbacks. It’s narrated by the man, who begins the tale by introducing the dramatis personae.
You come from parents wanton,
a childhood rough and rotten.
I come from wealth and beauty,
untouched by work or duty.
Next, he tells us about their first meeting.
I found you, a tattooed tramp,
a dirty daughter from the labour camps.
I lay you down in the grass of a clearing.
You wept but your soul was willing.
That last line is ambiguous at best, but after every stanza, he keeps coming back to a chorus where he calls her “my love, my love.” So part of you wants to resolve the ambiguity in favor of an interpretation where she’s also in love with him but conflicted about their relationship given the tension…
