| The Weakerthans – Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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An amazing song. I cry nearly every time I hear it. Like many of you, I was crushed when I saw the song title on the new album. One thing that was left to imagination in "Plea" was whether or not Virtute ever got through to her owner and whether or not his life improved. The crushing truth is that it did not. I've seen some people saying that "Virtute left because she was no longer needed", but the lyrics don't support this. Near the end of Virtute's time with her owner, he never talked to her, and she tried everything she could to just hear her name (a concept unnatural to cats, thus she thinks of it as the 'sound that you found for me'), scratching beer cans etc. Even a scolding would be better than the silence she endures. This is why Virtute leaves. For the first time since she was brought home (either from a shelter or off the street), she is tempted by the outdoors. The world seems exciting, and the pros of an owner no longer outweigh the lure of the turning dirt and the glowing moon. The saddest thing is that it is inevitable. Virtute tried, but the owner is not going to change, and he's just bringing Virtute down with him. She had to leave for herself. Now she lives in a what is most likely a construction site (it's noisy, the voices of the workers die when they go home, and construction vehicles always seem abandoned after the work is done, just left there till the next day). She is still living there at the time of the song, hence her saying she "found THIS noisy home" (you only refer to something as 'this' if it is present). The tips of her ears have fallen off from a previous winter's frostbite. (I should point out here that it's the TIPS of her ears that fell off, so she can still hear-- obviously, since she calls the site her "noisy home" and knows when the "voices die".) She remembers the good times often-- the cat fights, the brushing, and the sleeping, but she doesn't go back because she's grown distant from that life because the one thing that was constant through all the good times is gone from her memory. She can't remember the name her owner gave to her-- the sound that Virtute understood as her own and that bound cat and owner together. And now I'm crying. Great. |
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