Monster imagery
The figure of the monster (oversized, lurching, unkillable, and fundamentally other) as the speaker's self-characterization. Distinct from the Beast in that the monster is unconfined and moving freely through the world rather than caged or defanged; the emphasis is on size, unstoppability, and the terror the speaker believes she inspires rather than on captivity and suppressed wildness.
The monster represents the speaker's perception of her own fame and persona as monstrous - too large, too present, impossible to kill off, lurching toward people's lives whether they want her there or not. The figure holds both the horror-movie register (pierced through the heart but never killed) and the fairy-tale register (the monster on the hill).
Appears in 2 songs
“And I'm a monster on the hill Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city”
The speaker as a monster, too large, too much, lurching unstoppably toward the places people love, pierced but unkillable. Represents her sense of her fame and persona as monstrous, oversized, and inescapable.
“You made her like that”
The antagonist as monster-maker, the speaker has been made into a monster by the antagonist's actions. Uncle Jerry makes a list of literary monster-makers: 'Dr. Jekyll had to make Mr. Hyde, Victor Frankenstein made his own monster, Dr. Praetorius made the bride.' He reads the theme as 'you helped make me as a recording personality, and then you helped make me this mad woman because you took something from me.' The monster is created by the antagonist, not born.