Eleanor Rigby Literary Analysis
In the song “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, there is a lonely, sad woman who dies and is readily forgotten as she has nobody to care about her. How many people do we see out on the street that will just become "another dead body?" Eleanor Rigby really puts this into perspective that there are lonely people in this world living their lives serving others without being acknowledged. Eleanor is waiting for someone, but she is scarred in her heart by her lonely life. Sadly enough, she is an afterthought even in her death, as Father McKenzie writes her sermon in his socks, late at night. The theme of the song is that keeping the up the illusion isn’t always worth it. The literary devices demonstrating this theme are allegory, repetition, and imagery.
An allegory is symbolic narrative details that can sometimes imply another meaning. There are many examples of this in the song. In the line, “Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been. Lives in a dream,” The Beatles display a good example of allegory. The church in the song is very symbolic for life and death for many reasons. There is a mention of a wedding in this line and in some cultures a wedding is known as the celebration of life, however in the end Eleanor Rigby dies, thus being the opposite of life, instead she represents death. This allegory relates to the theme because it shows that Eleanor Rigby lives her life working in a church, attending weddings and working to bring life and happiness to others. She is living what everybody else considers the dream, but in reality she is a sad, lonely person. She keeps up the illusion of being happy and everyone believes her, however in the end she dies unremembered.
Another representation of the theme is repetition. In the lines, “All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong? Ah, look at all the lonely people. Ah, look at all the lonely people” The Beatles use the repetition of “lonely”
An allegory is symbolic narrative details that can sometimes imply another meaning. There are many examples of this in the song. In the line, “Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been. Lives in a dream,” The Beatles display a good example of allegory. The church in the song is very symbolic for life and death for many reasons. There is a mention of a wedding in this line and in some cultures a wedding is known as the celebration of life, however in the end Eleanor Rigby dies, thus being the opposite of life, instead she represents death. This allegory relates to the theme because it shows that Eleanor Rigby lives her life working in a church, attending weddings and working to bring life and happiness to others. She is living what everybody else considers the dream, but in reality she is a sad, lonely person. She keeps up the illusion of being happy and everyone believes her, however in the end she dies unremembered.
Another representation of the theme is repetition. In the lines, “All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong? Ah, look at all the lonely people. Ah, look at all the lonely people” The Beatles use the repetition of “lonely”