Hell
Appears in 6 songs
“All the hell you gave me”
Hell is both the suffering inflicted on the speaker by the antagonist and part of a coherent fire/hell/ashes cluster that positions the antagonist as the cause of damnation.
“They say all's well that ends well, but I'm in a new hell Every time you double-cross my mind”
Hell as the speaker's ongoing state after the breakup, each time she remembers, she enters a new hell. Uncle Jerry identifies this as both metaphorical and as an internal rhyme with 'well.'
“It's hell on earth to be heavenly”
The paradox of fame: being elevated to heavenly status creates hellish conditions on earth. The line holds both the religious imagery (heaven/hell) and the lived reality of celebrity's demands.
“Well, you took me to hell too”
Hell is the destination after the fake heaven, the partner who sold counterfeit impressionist paintings of heaven also dragged the speaker to hell.
“Devils that you know Raise worse hell than a stranger”
The devil-you-know proverb is twisted, the wise men warn that the speaker, as a known devil, is worse than any unknown threat. Uncle Jerry traces the proverb through Erasmus, Trollope's Barchester Towers, and Macbeth. Angela notes the twist: the original saying argues the known devil is preferable, but here the known devil is presented as raising 'worse hell,' inverting the comfort of the familiar.
“She's laughing up at us from Hell”
Hell as the speaker's imagined final destination, confirmation of her self-identification as monstrous and terrible, but delivered with vindictive humor rather than grief.