Tori Amos :: essays papers

Tori Amosbody Tori Amos And Her ArchetypesThe lyrics of Tori Amos are some of the most complicated in musictoday. They go along the primary focus of her dedicated fans, as wellas her detractors, despite the medias fixation on her past history ofrape and abuse. They are complicated on gentlemany levels, and Tori Amoslyrics demand a mythological approach to scratch the surface of herartistic vision. In several interviews, she has admitted to being muchinfluenced by numerous books of symbology and others of Jungianpsychology and their archetypal insights. I dont fall in love much.I mean, I fall in love every five seconds with something but I dont gofrom boy to boy. I go from archetype to archetype (Rogers 33). Mostdominantly, her lyrics rely on concept of the archetypal woman in allof her aspects. Motifs of humankind and destruction are alsorepresented in her work. Her ideals of balance for herself andfemininity in general have propelled her into stardom her uses ofarchetypes have led the way.The allusions to Christian mythology and obscure references in Father dickens delve deeper than the casual listener may recognize. EvenToriphiles, her avid fans like to affectionately refer to themselves inthis way, are pushed to the edge of their science in attemptingto come up with a meaning for every image. Applying a criticalmythological approach works best with Father Lucifers imagerybecause the archetypes tarry just below the surface. The title of thissong aids the audience in being able to place the situation -as doesthe songs tranquil melody the speaker treats the Lucifer characterwith compassion and appreciation. Lucifer represents more than justthe idea of the Christian Devil he is the Jungian shadow. The shadowis the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him (Guerin180). He is not unlike other symbolic representations of thisarchetype in literature, namely Miltons Satan. Father Luciferbegins with questions and infe rences from the s peaker that seem promote Tell me that youre still in love with that Milkmaid/hows the Lizzies/ hows your Jesus Christ been hanging (Amos, Boysfor Pele). Toriphiles and new listeners alike might concede thatpicking out who or what the Lizzies are is a daunting task. It isclear that they represent something and that their connection is morethan likely appropriate, however, the reference is just not available.Who the Milkmaid may be dust another reference on the same crypticplane. We might just be able to expect that the Milkmaid was simply a