#six rant

Also K Howard: Anyways…. All I wanna do!

Tbh, I think while the song is inaccurate, it works very well for the musical.

The whole ‘contest’ is about who had the worst life with Henry, and it would’ve been the audience’s choice. ‘No Way’ is a good contrast. No Way is all about what Henry had done, and how Catherine of Aragon tried (and failed) to fight back against it. She actively tries to gain empathy from the audience, singing about how he doesn’t remember her daughter, and the part with her begging Henry to tell her why she was wrong near the end. Unfortunately, Catherine’s personality is her downfall when it comes to this. I think that the reason she fails to gain as much empathy because of her fighting back

Anne stages herself as a young, sharp-tongued girl, trying to get the audience to relate to her and see her as younger than she is. She says that she doesn’t like politics because that could possibly lose the audience. They could see her as an intelligent woman rather than a girl who didn’t realise what was happening until too late. She mentions her father, calling him ‘daddy’ and claiming that he was the one who wanted her to chase after the king. This, again creates a much younger persona and the feeling that she is being controlled by someone. The humour during the letters is to get the audience to like her and keep them interested. Then comes the chorus. All of it just reinforces the idea that she was a young, impulsive girl with no idea what she was getting into. From the slang to the insults, all of it works to keep up this guise.

The second verse is mostly her insulting Aragon, with a few crude jokes thrown in. However, it starts with ‘three in the bed and the little one said’ which is referring to the ‘x in the bed and the little one said: roll over, roll over’ song, commonly sung to children. As we know, the ‘comments’ Anne made about Aragon spiral out of control, which is relatable, especially for the younger audience members.

There isn’t much to discuss for the next verse, except for Anne showing a hatred for the rules.

Now, we know that Anne didn’t actually commit adultery, but she realises that fighting back gave Aragon less empathy, so she admits to the charges, but justifies them by saying Henry was doing the same. When Henry confronts her, she insults him in a childish way. Then, she realises the reality of what she just did. This is where she plays on everything she’s built up so far.

This is much more clear in the show, but as the ‘What was I meant to do?!’ repeats, Anne gets more and more frantic. This pulls you in. It makes you feel sorry for Anne, as if she didn’t know what she was doing, like a child. She then makes a joke to bring the mood back up, before launching into the final chorus.

By now, she’s caught most people hook, line and sinker. Sure, the song may not be accurate to the actual events, but it is SUCH a good example of playing on your emotions.

I’m just going to quickly compare her to Katherine Howard, the other queen most people think of as having the worst life. Both of them act very young (birds and the bees me) and (but what was I meant to do?) being two good examples. Both of them have upbeat songs, cracking jokes and putting the other queens below them (I’m the 10 amongst these 3s) and (Don’t be bitter, because I’m fitter). Both talk about how they felt forced to get with Henry and how they didn’t mean/want anything to happen (before you come for me, no I am not saying Katherine Howard did it on purpose). This ‘formula’ keeps the audience engaged with the song, while gaining empathy as they do so.