Only a Man in a Funny Red Sheet: Anticlimax in Taylor Swift’s Superman

The Basics: 

Taylor Swift watches her romantic interest leave for work. She compares him to superman. 

Analysis:

The man that Taylor Swift compares to Superman does not actually seem that great. Swift sings “he’s complicated, he’s irrational” and talks about how others dislike him: “he’s not all bad like his reputation.” Further, Swift and this man do not seem to be in an actual relationship. Swift worries “I hope you don’t save some other girl” and repeatedly implores him “don’t forget, don’t forget about me.” Meanwhile, Swift is at home receiving tokens of affection from at least one other person. She sits “wishing the flowers were from you / wishing the card was from you / wishing the call was from you.” Someone IS sending her flowers and cards and calling her on the phone, but that someone is not the man she compares to superman. He, it seems, is off saving other women. Even though he seems like a pill and even though they are not in a relationship, Swift indicates her feelings in no uncertain terms: “I love you, I love you forever.” Indeed, she has “loved [him] from the very first day!” And she always will. “I’ll never let you go / I’m lovestruck and looking out the window.” 

It is true that Swift will never let this man go, but that is because she doesn’t have him in the first place! For the majority of the song, the narrator’s love interest is at the office. We see them have a single interaction in the first verse. Swift “hang[s] on every word that [he] say[s].” Lest you imagine a stirring oration about truth, justice, and the American way, Swift includes her actual conversation. “Superman” says “How are you?” and Swift responds: “Just fine.” This conversation does not warrant hanging on every word. All five words are quite mundane. Swift has romanticized a basic interaction in the same way that she has romanticized his flaws. Swift even managed to romanticize his office job: “He puts papers in his briefcase and drives away / To save the world or go to work / It’s the same thing to me.” This author works an office job and can assure you, it is not the same as saving the planet. 

Literary Device: Anticlimax

From the title as well as the first line (“Tall, dark, and Superman”) the listener is set up to have high expectations of Taylor Swift's love interest. Instead, the careful listener becomes increasingly disappointed. Swift seems to be obsessed with a man who is at best kind of boring and just not that into her. Despite his actual traits, behavior, and despite the fact that they are not in a relationship, Swift insists that she is “lovestruck.” 

Taylor Swift has justified the fact that she is sitting around pining for a dude who is just ok by creating a mythology around him. In his absence, she imagines that he is a mysterious and interesting superhero who is worthy of her love. Swift’s protestations of love, juxtaposed with what we know about the subject of that love, create an intense anticlimax. Expecting to find Swift’s Superman, instead, we find a man who does not live up to Clark Kent. 

Superman is the final bonus track fromSpeak Now. We find Taylor Swift once again critiquing her own tendency to impose tropes from fiction onto her own life. In her last two albums, Swift has compared her love life to legends and fairytales, romcoms, and now a superhero movie – all to mixed results. In this case, superimposing Superman onto her own life causes her to tragically overlook the reality of her situation.