Obsession
Obsession runs through Taylor Swift's songwriting as one person's consuming fixation on another, the compulsive attachment that persists beyond reason or self-interest, whether or not the feeling is returned. In Taylor's writing the obsession is most often the speaker's, directed at a real or imagined other, and may be framed as desire (Don't Blame Me, Wildest Dreams), as longed-for projection (mirrorball, Mastermind), or as the inability to release a finished relationship (ivy, Down Bad). Folklore archetypes of possession and the price of obsession sit behind several of these treatments.
Appears in 5 songs
“And I can go anywhere I want Anywhere I want, just not home”
Uncle Jerry identifies obsession as one of the song's central thematic investigations, connecting it explicitly to folklore archetypes, the witch obsessed with Rapunzel, the prince obsessed with Cinderella's shoe, King Midas obsessed with gold. He argues the antagonist's cursing of her name and wishing she stayed is evidence of an obsessive attachment that persists even after the relationship has ended. Angela echoes this: 'it's about that cycle of possession and obsession.' The bridge's 'you would still miss me in your bones' and 'stolen lullabies' reinforce this as structural, not decorative.
“Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the poem's central paradox as the speaker's knowing attachment to something she recognises as false. Uncle Jerry asks whether this is 'psychological obsession', noting the speaker is 'obsessed with the pain' and 'obsessed with the sadness that all this brokenness has brought about'. The speaker sees the relationship is a hoax, acknowledges the duplicity, yet cannot imagine wanting anything else. Angela frames it as feeling like there is no choice: 'I also don't believe that there's anything better.' The obsession operates not as desire for the beloved but as compulsive attachment to the state of suffering itself, which Uncle Jerry calls 'a devotion to her own sadness'.
“A drug that only worked The first few hundred times”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the drug/addiction metaphor as one of the poem's controlling conceits. Uncle Jerry traces the addiction language through 'tell yourself you can always stop,' the 'mercurial high,' 'a drug that only worked the first few hundred times,' and the final willingness to 'ruin myself.' He calls this 'the conceit she builds with being hooked on drugs' and notes the speaker recognises the relationship is destructive but cannot abandon it. The compulsive fixation persists beyond reason or self-interest, fitting the obsession pattern precisely.
“Stop you putting roots in my dreamland”
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss the uncontrollable, consuming nature of the love as a form of obsession. Uncle Jerry describes it as 'forbidden, uncontrollable, deeply impactful love' whose 'roots are embedded in the dreamland of the House of Stone.' Angela reads 'I can't stop' as 'I can't stop these feelings, the feelings that I have for you and the feelings you have for me.' Uncle Jerry elaborates on the ivy's invasive quality: 'you don't want that invasive spirit, but it just holds on. It clings to you. You don't want this illicit love, but you just can't tear it free from your soul.' The love is figured as something that consumes and overtakes despite resistance.
“The lingering question kept me up 2 a.m., who do you love”
Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss the speaker's fixation on the stranger after a single meeting, staying up past 2 a.m., pacing, unable to stop thinking about him, praying he isn't taken. Uncle Jerry frames this as the sustained aftermath of 'theia mania', a momentary encounter that produces hours of obsessive wondering. The prayer section ('please don't be in love with someone else') is identified as the culmination of this consuming attachment that persists beyond reason.