Love Story

I feel like this song is an alternate ending to the tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Taylor is just taking the sad elements out of the story and making them happy. She's sortof fixing the story by writing out what would have happened if the two hadn't committed suicide. There are a lot of lines in the first part of the song that seem like they're pretty specific to the story.

"We were both young when I first saw you"---Romeo and Juliet were both teenagers when they met and fell in love

"I'm standing there On a balcony in summer air"---The balcony scene

"See the lights, see the party, the ballgowns"---The two met at a costume ball hosted by the Capulets

"See you make your way through the crowd And say hello"---Romeo pursued Juliet at the ball after seeing how beautiful she was

"And my daddy said, Stay away from Juliet,"---The Capulets and the Montagues had an ancient feud which forbade them from loving each other. Juliet's father disapproved of Juliet's love for Romeo and arranged a marriage for her with another man.

"So I sneak out to the garden to see you We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew"---could be talking about the balcony scene again when Juliet sneaks out to talk to Romeo and warns him to be quiet because if her family were to find out they would kill Romeo.

"They're trying to tell me how to feel This love is difficult, but it's real"---Juliet's family told her that she couldn't love a Montague because of the feud. This made their love difficult because it was forbidden.

"So close your eyes Escape this town for a little while"---pretend that they're not in Verona and in that situation so that they could be in love and get married.

I think when she uses the term "scarlet letter" she doesn't actually mean she's an adulterer. I think she's just saying that she is and embarrassment to her family. Juliet was cut off from her family midway through the play when she refused her father's 'generosity' by not accepting the marriage he had arranged for her.

cute :) meaning's pretty obv though haha

awww =)

this song makes me happy. and it makes me think of somebody that makes me happy =)

This song is one of those popular misconceptions about Romeo and Juliet. Everyone's like, "Oh, Romeo and Juliet. How sweet. The perfect love story." Um, no. Shakespeare didn't intend it that way. The whole theme is about how their youth and inexperience made them rush too quickly. Juliet tried to tell Romeo in the balcony scene that the whole thing was moving too fast. Friar Laurence told Romeo that people who run fast stumble. He told him that those who love violently have violent ends. Romeo and Juliet are not models for teenagers. Were their deaths their fault? No, because they were too young to understand, and because if their parents weren't feuding they could court and marry the right way.

But people misinterpret the play because of songs like this. Plus, now when I read Romeo and Juliet, I get this song stuck in my head. It's catchy, but it gets really annoying after awhile and ruins Shakespeare's beautiful story for me, so thank you, Taylor Swift, thank you SOOOOO much.

After watching the video, I think she feels like she and a new boy have had a love in the past [I'm talking lifetimes ago], and she's convincing the boy in the present that they belong together, which is what the chorus is.

"We were both young when I first saw you," also could be that they met lifetimes ago, thus being "young." "So close your eyes, escape this town for a little while," sounds like she's telling him to close his eyes and see the flashback that she started in the first verse. Also, the part that says "I got tired of waiting...," makes me think about the old stories [Romeo & Juliet, A Scarlet Letter] because it didn't work out for them, and she's saying that now it's going to work out between them, he just needs to understand.

the scarlett letter part i finally figured it out, well my mom did, and it makes sense

well wen sumone gets a scarlett letter they are like shundown and shouldnt be talked to or see u know. well her father tells the boy that his daughter is a scarlett letter so they wont talk because the father doesnt want then to be together. she really doesnt have a scarlett letter but he wants the boy to think of her as oen so they wont be together and the boy will think she is a bad girl or sumthing.

I hope my interpretation is right...

We were both young when I first saw you

--she refers to the college scene in this lifetime when she first sees him reading under a tree.

I close my eyes and the flashback starts

--she has a strange paranormal experience and a past life memory comes to her in which...

I'm standing there On a balcony in summer air

--she is standing in a balcony in the summer air

See the lights, see the party, the ballgowns See you make your way through the crowd And say hello

-- this is another memory of the past life figure (her version of juliet)which happened a while ago when she had met romeo in a party when he introduced himself before dancing.

Little did I know That you were Romeo You were throwing pebbles And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet" And I was crying on the staircase Begging you, "Please don't go"

-- here the past life figure (her version of juliet) remembers another memory when (her version of Romeo) was throwing pebbles at her probably when she was in her room, which angered her father since he was his enemy's son, so he asks him to go away and she was asking him not to go.

And I said Romeo, take me Somewhere we can be alone I'll be waiting All there's left to do is run You'll be the prince And I'll be the princess It's a love story Baby, just say yes

she plans to meet him in private for they are not allowed to meet otherwise, and even such a meeting was considered very scandalous at that time period.

So I sneak out to the garden to see you We keep quiet because we're dead if they knew So close your eyes Escape this town for a little while

--the sneak out and meet in the garden and talk a little, if any thing was adulterous, it would have been there in the clips in video, no such clips are there, she just says something in his ear and then goes back, and he also goes back, may be she just asks him to go and be in another town for some days so that everything cools down.

Because you were Romeo I was a scarlet letter And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet" But you were everything to me

--they loved each other knowing they were forbidden for each other, here scarlet letter is a metaphor, since they were arch enemies.

I was begging you, "Please don't go" And I said Romeo, take me Somewhere we can be alone I'll be waiting All there's left to do is run You'll be the prince And I'll be the princess It's a love story Baby, just say yes

-repetition.

Romeo, save me They're trying to tell me how to feel This love is difficult, but it's real Don't be afraid We'll make it out of this mess It's a love story Baby, just say yes

--her family knew about their love affair and try to change her mind, but she stands the test of time and stays strong.

I got tired of waiting Wondering if you were ever coming around My faith in you is fading When I met you on the outskirts of town And I said Romeo, save me I've been feeling so alone I keep waiting for you But you never come Is this in my head? I don't know what to think

--her lover is still in town and has not come yet to save her from peril and one days when she met him she asks him to save her from her loneliness for she was losing hope as days went by.

He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring And said

Marry me, Juliet You'll never have to be alone I love you and that's all I really know I talked to your dad You'll pick out a white dress It's a love story Baby, just say yes

--they get married for her lover had talked to her father about their love and got permission to get married just as in old days, and it is a happy ending (in her version of romeo and juliet).

Also then the flashback ends, and both come back to their current lifetime and realize that they were soulmates and get united in this life time also.

I think the song is a metaphor for asking to end the endless tirade of search for the perfect person that everyone wants to be with, and if they get such flashbacks, they know for sure that they have selected the right person and so there ends the search and the beginning of real happiness, though laced with its own tragedies and sorrows but still the soulmates stay together through the thick and thin of it for they were really meant to be together!!!

I think it's just a teenage girl wanting her own fairytale. Someone to save her, someone to love her unconditionally, someone who makes her daddy love him. She's a dreamer, let's face it. (Not a bad thing)

really good observation to whoever made the check yes juliet reference

The person who says that the song tries to be too smart has a stick up their ass. It's a song about a forbidden love. Taylor herself has said this song is about, "a love that you've got to hide because for whatever reason it wouldn't go over well. I spun it in the direction of Romeo and Juliet; our parents are fighting. I relate to it more as a love that you cannot really elaborate on — a love that maybe society wouldn't accept [or] maybe your friends wouldn't accept."

When Hester was wearing the Scarlet letter, she was shunned by most of society. She was someone who you shouldn't be seen with.

When she says, "I was a Scarlet letter" it means that she was forbidden.