Charles Dickens
British · 19th century
English novelist widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the Victorian era, known for works including Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and A Tale of Two Cities.
Connection to Taylor Swift
Uncle Jerry draws a parallel between the boarded-up house imagery in 'Death by a Thousand Cuts' and Miss Havisham's decaying house in Great Expectations, connecting Taylor's extended metaphor of trapped, flickering love to Dickens' portrayal of a woman frozen in mourning.
Notable Works
- Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
A Tale of Two Cities
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss great last lines of literature in the context of 'Don't read the last page.' Uncle Jerry quotes the famous closing line of A Tale of Two Cities, and Angela connects Dickens back to the Reputation album by noting that Getaway Car opens with 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of crimes,' a twist on Dickens's famous opening.
A Christmas Carol
“I have this dream my daughter-in-law kills me for the money She thinks I left them in the will”
Community readers map the song's three movements onto the structure of A Christmas Carol: a first verse haunted by the people of her past (the ghosts she has ghosted), a second rooted in her monstrous present, and a bridge that leaps into a feared future where her own family gathers for the money. Like Scrooge, the speaker is an anti-hero whose redemption, if it comes, depends on facing each version of herself in turn; the song stages the visitation but withholds the morning-after relief.
Great Expectations
“I look through the windows of this love Even though we boarded them up Chandelier's still flickering here”
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss the extended metaphor of the boarded-up house with a flickering chandelier. Uncle Jerry connects this imagery to Miss Havisham's house in Dickens' Great Expectations, the old house where she is still mourning her wedding. The parallel is the image of love somehow still trapped and flickering inside a decaying, sealed-up space.
A Tale of Two Cities
“It was the best of times, the worst of crimes”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the opening line as a direct twist on the famous opening of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. Uncle Jerry notes that Dickens is renowned for his novel openings and that Taylor takes the opening line, which demonstrates internal rhyme, and gives it a twist by substituting 'crimes' for 'times.' Uncle Jerry describes this as a conflation where she preserves the recognisable source phrase while generating a novel meaning. He connects the original's contrast of London and Paris during the French Revolution to Taylor's own contrasting situation.