An Archetypal Analysis Of Carrie Underwood's Before He Cheats

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Anger Can Be Consuming: An Archetypal Analysis of Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats


(Introduction) (Thesis statement)
Growth is the epitome of the human experience. Every narrative has a dynamic character who changes and growths throughout the story. Often the change is positive, and the protagonist comes to a certain realization about themselves and instead of being selfish, they begin to give back to others. Other stories have a protagonist who has gone through a tragedy and must learn how to cope and move past the experience. This particular story is alluded to in American’s hit song, “Before He Cheats” from her album Some Hearts. The journey expressed in this song follows the archetype of rebirth recorded in Northrop Frye’s 1951 …show more content…

He is a mixture. A hero with a balance of good and bad will invoke pity or terror. The tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is better than the rest of us, of higher moral character or of higher position. This hero suffers a fall from grace or wealth or position because of a mistake. He makes this mistake, or even a series of mistakes, because of his tragic flaw—some trait that he feels is positive but in fact causes his poor choice. (3)

Underwood’s song relates to the listener that struggles often lead to personal growth and an acquisition of wonderful strength; a rebirth of one’s self into a more powerful and serene …show more content…

The emotional piece describes this rebirth and aims to spark a revolution in the hearts of listeners to also overcome personal tragedies. Immediately, the listener can infer a kind of psychological control that had been held over the hero. However, these lyrics are followed by:
Right now, he’s probably up behind her
With a polo stick
Showing her how to shoot a combo
And he doesn’t know. (lines 7-10)

Therefore, with this being said she’s expressing that he’ll never know what hit him after what she’s encountered and catching him having an affair with another woman. She’s no longer the “witch” because, she isn’t the one that made the mistake of cheating, therefore, his actions reflect from the multiple mistakes that he made coming up to this point.

“The Archetypes of Literature” in The Kenyon Review, “In the tragic vision of the human world is a despotism, or anarchy… [and] the deserted or betrayed hero (105).”

The emotions in the lyrics throughout the song are static as she is singing with anger and never reaches forgiveness. In addition, this song is realistic and relatable because, it skillfully navigates the emotional aspect of unfaithful relationships as well as having coping mechanisms during a difficult time in one's personal

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