On July 24, 2020, Taylor Swift made history when she dropped her eighth album, Folklore. Folklore earned Album of the Year at the Grammys and was on the Billboard 200 albums chart for eight nonconsecutive weeks.
With all of Swift’s songs, they tell a story. However, three of the songs on her album have connecting stories. The songs “Cardigan,” “August,” and “Betty” all tell different parts of the same story, a story that ended in heartbreak.
“Cardigan” tells the story of Betty, who was in a relationship with James. Their relationship was nothing short of a typical teenage tale; they were young and naively in love. Everyone around Betty told her that she knew nothing about love “when they are young, they assume you know nothing.” However, she feels she knows James deeper because he makes her feel like one of a kind, “when I felt like I was an old cardigan… you put me on and said I was your favorite.”
The song’s first half is spent listening to Betty talk about how she is in love, but then it drastically changes. Betty says, “a friend to all is a friend to none; chase two girls, lose the one,” which implies that James may be seeing another woman. This implication is proven true when Betty says, “you drew stars around my scars, and now I’m bleeding.” Ouch. Betty trusted James with her emotions; he protected her feelings and then left her to bleed. However, throughout the song, she believes that he will return to her, even after leaving her, “I knew you’d miss me once the thrill expired and you’d be standing in my front porch light.” The song then ends with the couple reuniting.
Betty, told from the point of view of James himself (gross), is the story of what happens after James tries to pursue another woman. James feels exceptionally guilty for what he did: “Betty, one time I was riding on my skateboard when I passed your house, it’s like I couldn’t breathe.” Throughout the song, James ponders whether or not he should show up and try to apologize to her during her party and whether or not she would take him back. James claims that he is innocent and that his affair was just a summer thing, “would you trust me if I told you it was just a summer thing? I’m only seventeen. I don’t know anything.”
We start to get an inside look at the affair when James says, “I was walking home on broken cobblestones… when she pulled up… she said, ‘James, get in, let’s drive,’’ making the women in the car seem like the villain and him completely helpless. He even admits to sleeping next to her but claims that he could only think of Betty while doing so (yeah, right). After pondering his guilt and coming to a conclusion he was in no way responsible, he decides to show up at her party and apologize. Betty then accepts his apology, even though she could do better.
Finally, we gain the perspective of the women mixed up in this triangle, August. August tells the story of the woman herself and how James used her. August fell head over heels in love with James, “I can see us lost in the memory; August slipped away into a moment of time.” However, she starts to understand that James was never indeed hers, “‘cause it was never mine.” For the time being, August is happy with the amount of attention James is giving her, but she wants to be entirely and utterly loved by him. What started as a simple flirt led to James stringing her along “remember when I pulled up and said ‘get in the car?’ and then canceled my plans just in case you call?”
When August approaches James, it is assumed that this is during a break in Betty and James’ relationship. August truly falls in love with James, and then James leaves her and returns to Betty, stringing both of these women along.