Subtext You Didn't Know Was There

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 12:45pm

So, in my Classics class, I learned that the French expression "la petite mort" or (a little death) refers to an orgasm. Did you guys get this reference the first time you heard "Every Day A Little Death"?

Do you have any other experiences like this? I.e. Finding a new meaning to a song because you understand the subtext a bit more?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 1:35pm

I think that's text, though.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 1:58pm

Isn't subtext the unspoken truth and/or intent behind the words? I'm not sure Sondheim meant to imply "Every day an orgasm" in that particular song sung by those particular characters. It makes no sense. Or that they are implying that orgasms are little deaths. Even linking the infidelity of the husbands as equating orgasms to marital death is far too lateral in degrees to be considered subtext.

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 2:05pm

You guys just are missing the beats.

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 5:47pm

My personal interpretation was that even though being a submissive wife slowly saps the life out of you, the "little death" keeps them in the marriage because it's so good ("He assumes I lose my reason and I do"). I just think the sexual connotations of the phrase adds an extra layer to the interpretation of the song don't you think?

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 6:49pm

That sounds like the opposite of what the song means. Every day, a little thing dies in the smallest of places (in the parlor, in the bed, in the looks, and in the eyes, etc.). The little death is what causes Charlotte to question her relationship, not what holds it together. It's an interesting theory, but it appears to be just coincidence.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 6:55pm

And of course with Anne being a virgin she certainly is not singing about the orgasms that are holding her marriage together when she joins in.

[yankee_fan907]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 7:01pm

You think that this particular Sondheim lyric is "just coincidence" considering how meticulous he is with all of his other lyrics? You realize the scene before it talks about adultery, right? The sexual undertones are obviously there for a reason. I suggest you go through the lyrics and think about it a little harder.

[Craig]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 7:28pm

It's a play on words.

You can't have a little death. You're either dead or you're not. Like you're either pregnant or you're not.

Every day a little death is used as a metaphor

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 7:43pm

Sondheim does that a lot though. I never got the sexual connotation in the lyric "buried sweetly in your yellow hair" until someone pointed it out to me.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 10/24/11 at 7:52pm

At the very least, Charlotte is making a pun (since a woman of her class and era would almost certainly speak French) and it's doubtful Sondheim was unaware of it.

But it isn't likely Charlotte gets laid every day or is talking about her own orgasms (except for the part of the lyric where she talks about her eager response to Carl-Magnus on the rare occasions he reaches for her). Charlotte's orgasms are overwhelming and humiliating, but they are not daily occurrences.

It makes more sense that her husband's daily petit-morts (with his mistress) are slowly killing her. By this scene, Anne believes Frederick has committed adultery with Desiree or would like to, so it does make sense when she joins Charlotte in the use of the term. (ETA but if I were playing Anne, I'd probably assume the pun goes over her head.)
Updated On: 10/24/11 at 07:52 PM

[pinoyidol2006]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 3:14am

^Or that. That makes even more sense to me.

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 1:55pm

I can't find the quote now, but I'm like 90% sure that Sondheim said he was unaware of the connection when he wrote the song and that it is a coincidence.

[MariusPontmercy]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 2:45pm

It's not a song, but knowing that in Shakespeare's era "nothing" was slang for vagina suddenly reveals a whole lot of now-obscure punnage - the title Much Ado About Nothing being the most obvious, but there are plenty of others that went completely over my heard before I knew. Like this one from Hamlet (that also has the more obvious "country matters" pun):

Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia: No, my lord.
Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lap?
Ophelia: Ay, my lord.
Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters?
Ophelia: I think nothing, my lord.
Hamlet: That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.
Ophelia: What is, my lord?
Hamlet: Nothing.

[AC126748]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 2:49pm

But it isn't likely Charlotte gets laid every day or is talking about her own orgasms (except for the part of the lyric where she talks about her eager response to Carl-Magnus on the rare occasions he reaches for her).

Consider Carl-Magnus's line in his first scene with Charlotte: "A civilized man can tolerate his wife's infidelity, but when it comes to his mistress, a man becomes a tiger!" I always took that to mean that maybe Charlotte has/had a little something on the side, too.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 3:26pm

Maybe so, AC, but Charlotte doesn't act like a woman who thinks she has options. Of course, one may conclude that her own infidelities aside, she simply loves her husband. Open marriage isn't for everyone. But that isn't the impression I get from Charlotte. I think Hugh Wheeler was just being witty. While Carl-Magnus may agree with his statement in general, somehow I don't see him being so complacent if Charlotte were actually having an affair; he seems very protective of his "property".

As for Sondheim saying he never thought of the French meaning of the term, that's possible. I know I didn't until it was mentioned here. But surely he knew the other meaning of "petit mort" and may have used it unconsciously.

[artisn'teasy]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 3:32pm

I'm with Gaveston- I always took it to be ironic, since the two ladies definitely aren't having any orgasms (that we know of) but their husbands are (at Anne thinks hers is) which has much to do with the slow death of their marriages. I never thought of Charlotte as getting any on the side, which would certainly be possible. Although I guess it would change the likelihood of the pun.

[Gaveston2]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 3:48pm

I'm relying on the Wiki synopsis instead of going to the other room to reread the libretto, but Charlotte actually has a plan to make Carl-Magnus jealous during the weekend of Act II. That isn't the work of a wife whose infidelities have been tolerated.

And though Carl-Magnus plans to challenge Fredrik to a duel over Desiree, in fact he does so upon seeing Fredrik sitting with Charlotte on the lawn. So it turns out that Carl-Magnus' claim about ignoring the infidelities of a wife simply wasn't true.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 10/25/11 at 5:34pm

You think that this particular Sondheim lyric is "just coincidence" considering how meticulous he is with all of his other lyrics?

Yes.