Adolescent Affairs: Taylor’s “betty” Meaning, Explained
betty is the final piece of the teenage love triangle puzzle of folklore, a fictional narrative in which Taylor explores lost love, finding yourself, and learning to grow up.
From the perspective of fictional character James, Taylor narrates how he finds his way back to his high school sweetheart, Betty. He tries to reunite with his beloved, but he has a lot of apologies to make.
What does this narrative tell us, how does this song intersect with august and cardigan, and what can we learn about the truth of Taylor’s songwriting through her use of fiction?
Here’s my complete English teacher analysis of Taylor’s betty meaning, line by line.
betty by Taylor Swift
- Title: Betty
- Written by: Joe Alwyn, Taylor Swift
- Track: 14, Folklore
- Pen: Fountain
- Lyrics from Genius
betty Analysis: Narrative Summary
- Setting: The teenage love triangle of folklore.
- Characters: Narrator (James, through Taylor), subject (Betty, “you”), Inez (their friend).
- Mood: Wistful, hopeful, regretful.
- Conflict: James cheated on Betty with Augustine.
- Inciting Incident: Betty switched her homeroom.
- Quest: Get Betty back, apologize.
- Symbols & Metaphors: “switched your homeroom,” “The worst thing that I ever did,” “showed up at your party,” “In the garden,” “where it all went wrong,” “broken cobblestones,” “those days turned into nights,” “I showed up at your party,” “kiss me on the porch,” “patch your broken wings,” “standing in your cardigan.”
- Theme: “I’m sorry.”
- Imagery: “When I passed your house / It’s like I couldn’t breathe”, “if I just showed up at your party / Would you have me?”, “ lead me to the garden,” “Your favorite song was playing from / The far side of the gym”, “walking home on broken cobblestones,” “she pulled up like a figment of my worst intentions,” “Slept next to her, but I dreamt of you,” “Will you kiss me on the porch / In front of all your stupid friends?”, “will it patch your broken wings?” “Standing in your cardigan / Kissin’ in my car again / Stopped at a streetlight.”
- Lesson: A heartfelt apology can go a long way.
What is betty About?
betty is the third installment of the folklore “teenage love triangle.” The other two songs on the album that describe these fictional characters are august and cardigan.
Quick recap: James and Betty (Taylor’s fictional characters) are high school sweethearts. James begins cheating on Betty with August/Augustine. It lasts for a summer (as detailed in august), then he tries to get Betty back.
The song betty is his apology, trying to win back the affections of his ex-girlfriend.
Who is betty About?
According to Taylor herself, betty is about her fictional teenage love triangle she invented for this album.
There is a lot of speculation, especially since The Tortured Poets Department dropped, that this fictional love triangle was all a ruse, and that the characters actually represent a real love triangle in Taylor’s personal life.
But whether this situation is based on reality or not, we may never know. Taylor’s purposeful use of fantasy in the folklore and evermore albums blur the boundaries between truth and fiction.
Did Joe Alwyn Write betty?
Taylor revealed in the Folklore Long Pond Studios Sessions that she heard Joe “singing the fully-formed chorus to Betty from another room.”
She approached her then-boyfriend about continuing to write the song together, and they did.
Joe’s pen name was originally “William Bowery”, but after it was revealed that Willam Bowery was Joe Alwyn, they essentially dropped the pen name.
Joe also contributed to the track exile, also on the folklore album. But fans have always speculated about the identity of William Bowery, and the mystery has only deepened.
betty Meaning: Line by Line
The first verse opens with James singing to Betty: “I won’t make assumptions about why you switched your homeroom.”
She’s switched out of their shared high school homeroom class, and James speculates, “I think it’s ‘cause of me.”
He’s done something horrible to her, and he doesn’t know if he’ll be forgiven. It’s tearing him up inside, as detailed in the next anecdote: “one time I was riding on my skateboard when I passed your house, it’s like I couldn’t breathe.”
The skateboard paints him as a young, naive boy, passing the house of his lost love in the hopes she’ll be in the window. But instead, he loses his breath because of the guilt and remorse over how he hurt her.
“You heard the rumors from Inez,” he says, pointing the finger at one of their friends, “you can’t believe a word she says.” Inez is painted as a gossip and loudmouth, not to be believed. But this time “it was true.” Inez wasn’t lying about James cheating on Betty.
“The worst thing that I ever did,” he tells Betty, “was what I did to you.” He admits what he did was terrible, and that it hurt Betty badly.
Chorus: “In The Garden, Would You Trust Me?”
The chorus speculates what would happen if he tried to get her back.
“If I just showed up at your party, would you have me?” he asks, “would you want me?”
If he crashed a gathering at her house, would she kick him out? Or would she want him to stay? Does she want him in her life, or would she tell him to fuck off?
“Or would you lead me to the garden?” he asks. Would she lead him to a secluded spot, away from the festivities, so they could have some privacy?
The garden symbolizes the Garden of Eden, in which Eve was tempted to eat the forbidden fruit. This is a metaphor for James’ affair with Augustine: if he takes Betty to the garden, can they start over, free from “original sin”?
“In the garden, would you trust me if I told you it was just a summer thing?” he asks her. Will she believe that it’s really over between him and Augustine, even though it lasted for an entire summer?
“I’m only 17,” he laments, “I don’t know anything, but I know I miss you.” He’s admitting he’s a young, stupid kid who did a stupid thing. All he knows is that he misses what he had with her.
🩶 Can you pass my tricky folklore Lyrics Quiz? 🩶
Verse 2: “Betty, I Know Where it All Went Wrong”
The second verse traces their relationship troubles back to before Augustine entered the picture.
“Betty, I know where it all went wrong,” he says. He points to a specific moment at their high school dance.
“Your favorite song was playing from the far side of the gym,” he narrates, and “I was nowhere to be found.” A song she really wanted to dance to came on, but James had disappeared.
“I hate the crowds,” he says, “you know that.” He was hiding away from the dancefloor, so when his girlfriend wanted a partner, he was missing in action. He’s trying to excuse his behavior, and continues to do so with: “plus, I saw you dance with him.”
Betty’s boyfriend was missing, so she danced to her favorite song with another boy. But James saw this, and was jealous.
This tees up his mental state; he holds a teeny grudge against Betty that will come up again in the next verse. He’s pointing to the moment when he messed up.
Bridge: “She Pulled Up Like A Figment of My Worst Intentions”
After the dance, James was “walking home on broken cobblestones.” The cobblestones are also mentioned in cardigan, where Betty says: “high heels on cobblestones.”
They left the dance separately, and James ran into temptation.
“Just thinking of you when she pulled up like / a figment of my worst intentions,” he says. Like a figment of his imagination, Augustine pulls up in her car, representing his “worst intentions.” The worst intentions are to cheat on Betty, because he saw her dance with another boy.
“She said, ‘James, get in, let’s drive’”, and he got in the car with her. This echoes Augustine’s recollection of events in August: “remember when I pulled up, said ‘get in the car.’”
This is when they start the affair: on the way home from the dance. It continues from there, and lasts all summer.
“Those days turned into nights,” James says, “Slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long.” His body was with Augustine, but his brain was with Betty.
The days turning into nights symbolizes how at first it was bright, shining, and exciting, but then slowly deteriorated into darkness. This reflects his mental state during this summer-long dalliance.
Verse 3: “Betty, I’m Here on Your Doorstep”
The final verse details his plan to get Betty back. “Betty, I’m here on your doorstep,” he says, “and I planned it out for weeks now.” He’s been slowly plotting this moment, and imagines how it will turn out.
“It’s finally sinkin’ in,” he says, “right now is the last time I can dream about what happens when you see my face again.” It’s no longer imaginary: he’s actually on the doorstep, and from here on out, it’s out of his control.
When she sees him, what will happen?
Final Chorus: “Will You Have Me? Will You Love Me?”
The final chorus and outro give us some resolution to the situation. “Yeah, I showed up at your party,” James says.
He asks her, “will you have me? Will you love me?” He begs to be loved by her again, with all his faults and mistakes. Can she love all of him? Will she welcome him into her heart once again?
“Will you kiss me on the porch in front of all your stupid friends?” he asks. This echoes Betty’s perspective from cardigan, when she says “I knew you’d be standin’ in my front porch light, and you’d come back to me.”
He has come back, and this is the moment they both describe: they get back together. He returned to her, and they ended up together.
“Will it patch your broken wings?” he wonders. This also echoes cardigan, when Betty says she was broken, feeling like “an old cardigan, under someone’s bed.” She was feeling unlovable after she learned of the affair.
But after he returns, she reminisces: “you put me on and said I was your favorite.” It patches her “broken wings” when he returns to love her again.
The outro describes Betty in this moment: “standing in your cardigan.” This imagery is important: Betty is no longer an “old cardigan”, dusty under the bed. She’s wearing it, meaning she’s no longer lost, forgotten and forlorn.
They go on to “kissin’ in my car again,” reflecting another cardigan moment of when “to kiss in cars…was all we needed.” They’ve returned to those magical moments of kissing in cars, even after they were “stopped at a streetlight” for the Augustine affair.
They climb in and drive down the road together, into an unknown future.
🩶 Can you pass my tricky folklore Lyrics Quiz? 🩶
betty Song Meaning: Final Thoughts
betty is the final piece to the teenage love triangle puzzle of folklore, and it wraps the story in a nice bow. Betty and James end up together, and Augustine only left with her memories of one hot summer.
So what’s the common thread of cardigan, august, and betty? Memory.
cardigan recalls how Betty felt before and after the cheating scandal. august recalls how she felt when she realized James never belonged to her, and betty details how James felt after making the biggest mistake of his life.
Each of their memories of these events are a bit different, but they’ve all ended up where they were supposed to be. Like the invisible string, fate led them away from one another and back together again, having retained the lessons of their time apart.
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