Hey everyone! It has been a few posts since I have made a Taylor Swift and Gatsby comparison but don’t worry…that’s exactly what I will be doing in this post. The song I will be analyzing is from a song off her Reputation album (shocking!), as I believe this album and the Rep Tour is just one big Gatsby reference in itself…but we can get into that in another post. It is a very small reference but I feel like it’s an important one to write about. The song for today is called “Delicate.” The lines I will be analyzing are lines that I thought to be a conversation between Gatsby and Daisy. The lines are in two different verses but I feel that they are in argument with each other. The first verse reads,
“Dive bar on the East Side, where you at?”
And then the second verse goes,
“Third floor on the West side, me and you
Handsome, you’re a mansion with a view”
As soon as I saw these lines I immediately thought of the division of the West Egg vs East Egg in The Great Gatsby. As we all know the East Egg is where the Buchanans live and represents generational wealth. And I picture Gatsby saying this line kind of asking Daisy to meet him secretly at this dive bar on her side of town. Then I interpreted the next verse as a response from Daisy’s perspective. I feel that she is talking about being with Gatsby in his mansion in the West Egg. This conversation Taylor has created between the two character’s really shows the secrecy and mysterious aspect of Daisy and Gatsby’s love affair. Although I am sure there is speculation of if this is truly a Gatsby reference but based on the many other references from this album; I believe this is a Gatsby Easter “egg” for sure.
The last thing that I want to analyze is this part of the song, which comes right after each of the lines analyzed above,
“This ain’t for the best
My reputations never been worse, so
You must like me for me
Yeah, I want you”
I feel like this is their admittance of their feelings to each other in a way. Like in the first verse, it is Gatsby saying these things after he talks about the dive bar; and in the second verse it’s Daisy reiterating these things after talking about the mansion. They know that “this ain’t for the best” because Daisy is married and Gatsby is unhappy but they immediately disregard that with the line “yeah I want you.” Aside from that, I really liked the “my reputation’s never been worse so you must like me for me” line as I feel like it mentions the idea of the reputations each character has in the novel and how their true self is hidden from the public eye. For example, Gatsby’s reputation comes from his wealth and organized crime life whereas Daisy’s reputation is the opposite as she appears to be perfect, but Gatsby knows she is not.
Regardless of if this was truly meant to be a Great Gatsby reference; Taylor Swift did a flawless job at writing this song from different perspectives, for people like me to analyze! Here is a photo from the “Delicate” music video that I feel solidifies my opinions on these potential Gatsby references with the outfits and setting! Hope you enjoyed reading!
Comments by Kynli Jones