This is such a powerful, important and great song… Kate is truly awesome…
lidarose9 gives a very good interpretation.
Mirrors “can reflect directly, reflect with additions or deletions, or serve as a doorway into another reality. The mirror is troubling because it reveals plainly what is before us, forcing us to interpret and evaluate whether or not we like what we see.”
The power of this song is ‘reflected’ in the words... The song is ‘a mirror’ on her grief through which we look… eg:
‘I remember…’ = I can’t forget…
‘They traipsed etc…’ = My expanding grief now that you’re gone…
‘And everything I could fit in it…’ = an emotional image of what she will have to work through later.
‘all our… all your…’ = The first mention of him… sung to him… they are still their dirty clothes… like he is so alive…
‘sparkled’, ‘new’ , ‘washing machine’ are sung like lifebuoys in Mrs. Bartolozzi’s sea of grief.
Mrs. Bartolozzi stares at the clothes going round and round… Her mind wanders off reflectively through the mirror window of the washing machine… Through her words, we see/feel the love between the two of them… and consequently the mirrored lost world…
‘standing right behind me…’ = supporting me / part of me…
‘I think I see you standing outside…’ = I need your support…
(outside=other=separation=beyond=death, etc.)
She is startled by a freshly laundered shirt blowing outside/through the window… She has lost her support…
‘Oh and the waves are going out/Oh and the waves are coming in…’ gives a sense of drowning reminiscent of THE NINTH WAVE… And grief is the Ninth Wave bearing down…
Sociologically, the washing machine marked a new phase of freedom in women’s work and lives. It also made them more domestically isolated. Gone were the washing songs and the institution of collective sharing surrounding them. So the washing song at the end of Mrs. Bartolozzi heightens our sense of her isolation and aloneness in grief. Instead of sharing as her grandmother might have done, Mrs Bartolozzi is singing her grief alone…
This is such a powerful, important and great song… Kate is truly awesome… lidarose9 gives a very good interpretation.
Mirrors “can reflect directly, reflect with additions or deletions, or serve as a doorway into another reality. The mirror is troubling because it reveals plainly what is before us, forcing us to interpret and evaluate whether or not we like what we see.”
The power of this song is ‘reflected’ in the words... The song is ‘a mirror’ on her grief through which we look… eg:
‘I remember…’ = I can’t forget… ‘They traipsed etc…’ = My expanding grief now that you’re gone… ‘And everything I could fit in it…’ = an emotional image of what she will have to work through later. ‘all our… all your…’ = The first mention of him… sung to him… they are still their dirty clothes… like he is so alive…
‘sparkled’, ‘new’ , ‘washing machine’ are sung like lifebuoys in Mrs. Bartolozzi’s sea of grief.
Mrs. Bartolozzi stares at the clothes going round and round… Her mind wanders off reflectively through the mirror window of the washing machine… Through her words, we see/feel the love between the two of them… and consequently the mirrored lost world…
‘standing right behind me…’ = supporting me / part of me… ‘I think I see you standing outside…’ = I need your support… (outside=other=separation=beyond=death, etc.)
She is startled by a freshly laundered shirt blowing outside/through the window… She has lost her support…
‘Oh and the waves are going out/Oh and the waves are coming in…’ gives a sense of drowning reminiscent of THE NINTH WAVE… And grief is the Ninth Wave bearing down…
Sociologically, the washing machine marked a new phase of freedom in women’s work and lives. It also made them more domestically isolated. Gone were the washing songs and the institution of collective sharing surrounding them. So the washing song at the end of Mrs. Bartolozzi heightens our sense of her isolation and aloneness in grief. Instead of sharing as her grandmother might have done, Mrs Bartolozzi is singing her grief alone…
"Mrs. Bartolozzi" is a remarkable piece of work!