#dorothea

My history with the song:

Tbh this one was never that important to me. However, after going into Beatles-hyperdrive from like May-November 2021, I remember coming back to Taylor and this song being one of the first I listened to and just immediately realizing, despite it not being a standout track to me, how much I had missed Taylor and her soft, calm voice in particular.

Also every time I listen, I think about how I'm like 80% sure she mostly chose Tupelo as a location because it rhymes with "who you know" and it's a teensy bit goofy to me lmao.

My thoughts:

"dorothea" is a warm ballad that switches perspectives with "'tis the damn season", though it noticably takes place during the eponymous Dorothea's absence from her hometown, rather than on one of her holiday visits. "Hey, Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me? / When we were younger" the narrator wonders, recalling childhood memories and contrasting them with Dorothea's current glamorous life.

Many of these memories shed a light on why Dorothea left: "Down in the park / Honey, making a lark of the misery"; "This place is the same as it ever was / But you don't like it that way"; "Skipping the prom / Just to piss off your mom and her pageant schemes" — the latter of which is a delightful characterful nugget, which feels very in line with "'tis the damn season"'s snippiness. Moreover, the narrator seems to be taken with Dorothea's star persona: "You're a queen, selling dreams / Selling makeup and magazines / From you I'd buy anything."

Still, there's a strong sense that Dorothea's influencer/celebrity is superficial and lonely ("If you're ever tired of being known for who you know / You know, you'll always know me"), just as she indicated in her own song ("My so-called friends who'll write books about me"). As opposed to the folklore love triangle, these two characters seem to fundamentally agree: they love each other, but they have incompatible lives.

Favourite lyric: I love "A tiny screen's the only place I see you now" — the modernity of a smartphone, the way it makes Dorothea more distant to the narrator, the way it conveys a sort of disappointing mundanity of internet-age celebrity culture.

Favourite melodic line: "This place is the same as it ever was" it flows nicely and satisfyingly.

The strongest version of you isn’t the one who never feels alone but the one who feels complete even when no one’s around. 🤎 ❤️🧡