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Literary Analysis: "Eleanor Rigby"

"Eleanor Rigby" is a passionate, provoking song written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The piece is beautifully well-written and tragic. It overflows with many intense emotional themes such as fixated fantasy, loneliness, and suicide.

The song essentially depicts two different characters who both experience varying degrees of loneliness. The song opens up with "Ah, look at all the lonely people." At this point, this term refers to the living lonely people. Eleanor Rigby is the main character. She lives in a world that only exists in her mind. A scene takes place where she picks up rice in a church after a wedding. In other words, she is alone and is obsessed with finding a life-long partner to the point of disillusionment. The desire to have someone in her life is basically the fantasy she occupies herself with. Figuratively speaking, Eleanor "lives life as a dream".

In the song, she wears a mask that she puts in a jar by her door, while she looks out a window. The face in the jar by the door is make-up, which she can easily put it on if someone enters her house. She uses the make-up to give others the delusion that she is happy. However, she learns to realize that not all of the people she sees are happy. As she waits by the window, she looks out so as to see who is coming, so that she can put up her deceiving faÐ*ade. Waiting by the window can also suggest that since she zealously longs for a companion, she hopes someone passing by would notice her. More or less, she symbolizes people who want something in their lives but are unable to obtain them. It may be said that these longings can only be attained through wishful thinking.

Father McKenzie is a priest who is also weighed down with solitude. Similar to Eleanor, he is barely noticed by the populace. He feels as though no one listens to him as he gives his sermons. He writes them alone while "darning his socks at night", for he knows that no one will come and visit him. Although he is lonely just like Eleanor Rigby, he is able to lead a fulfilling life, if he allows himself to be concerned with it. He is a priest, meaning he has a congregation to lead; he has his church to look after. An excerpt from the song implies that he produces and writes a sermon that for some reason, no one will hear. However, it is given that someone has yet to come and approach him. He writes for an audience that does not necessarily wish to attend the church service or even care to listen to him, speak. He believes that his sermons might help other with their lives, but in reality they also serve a dual purpose.

At the same time he tries to save others, he is trying to help himself too. Father McKenzie probably knows that no one goes to church to listen to his sermons. Therefore, he is left with the feeling of talking to a metaphoric "brick wall" while he is preaching. In spite of it all, he still mends his socks at night when no one will see. He still holds onto the religion he believes in. Working at night shows that he prefers to be alone. He does not care that no one is around to see him work because that is what he actually wants. This is his escape. He chose to be a priest and that includes the loneliness that comes with it. In a way, Father McKenzie represents people who have something in their lives to live for, but still feel lonely otherwise. He can be portrayed as an only child yearning for a sibling in order to share the good things his parents have gotten for him.

The song ends on a dreadfully tragic note. Eleanor Rigby dies in the church and is buried along with her name. It is quite obvious she died alone and that the name she brings to