| Morrissey – The Father Who Must Be Killed Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Hmm, let's leave behind our cultural fixation with child molestation for a moment and look at what the lyrics actually say. I think a lot of this song is based around the internal perceptions of the stepchild, rather than reality. The lines "Stepchild, you have outlived your time / You represent embarrassment and failure" is how the stepchild feels about her position within the family, i.e., she feels 'left over' from a previous, failed relationship, and now lives feeling outcast and unwelcome from the new family unit, like they would be better off without her. She is understandably angry about this, although there is no evidence given in the song that she is made to feel like this intentionally by the mother or the stepfather. I am fairly certain that this song is not about child abuse. It describes "petty swipes" and the annoying way the stepfather chews his food, which implies quite the opposite - that the stepfather isn't necessarily at fault, but the stepchild PERCEIVES that he is a monster and deserves to die, because, to her, he is iconic of the situation which has led to her feeling like an unwanted child. It gets complicated at the "I'm sorry" part, and I think this is intentionally ambiguous, but I think that jumping to the assumption that he must have raped her contradicts the rest of the song entirely. Maybe Morrissey is using poetic licence and the stepfather is actually apologising for making her feel outcast, therefore affirming her feelings? Or maybe the apology is imagined in a moment of closure, hence it is followed by the "stepchild, I release you", which, obviously, he wouldn't actually be saying. The stepchild reflects on the shortness of life before killing herself. She is either reflecting on having just taken someone's life and the moral dilemma that has given her ("no one to warn me" possibly refers to this), or she feels pushed to commit suicide for a range of mental reasons which it is obvious she has through the way she handles herself in the song, and is reflecting on the shortness of her own life as she is about to die. Yes, there is the "no hand to touch me" line, but it is unclear that this is talking about the stepfather, since she says it while killing herself and so no hand will ever touch her again, and it is in context of talking about general problems with her life/the world such as "bible belters" (plural). |
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