imagine dragons: night visions demons. music video
TRANSCRIPT
Imagine Dragons: Night Visions
DEMONS
SPEAKER
The speaker is an unidentified gender and age. From the singers perspective, I will consider the speaker as an adult male. This man has had a troubled past with some dark experiences
and they haunt him. He sees these as his demons and considers them a part of him. Although this song can be interpreted in many ways, I took this as a man trying to keep
someone he loves from getting too close and finding their own demons.
LYRIC INTERPRETATIONS
• When the days are cold
And the cards all fold
And the saints we see*
Are all made of gold
When your dreams all fail
And the ones we hail
Are the worst of all
And the blood’s run stale
- Things are dark and sad
- Everyone is giving up
- Even the seemingly happy are hiding secrets
- Life is hard
- Some of the most influential people are the worst role models
- Passion is failing
• I wanna hide the truth
• I wanna shelter you
• But with the beast inside
• There’s nowhere we can hide
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom come
- This person wants to protect
someone from darkness and the
truth of the sadness surrounding
them
- This mans demons were too
strong to keep them away from
them
- Beneath all the talk of
‘goodness’ human behavior
makes us think of ourselves
- This is how it is, It can’t change
When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide
Don’t get too close
It’s dark inside
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide
- He tells this person to look into
his eyes and see that his
happiness is only a mask
- His ‘demons’ from his past are
hiding there, consuming his being
- - Stay away, I will hurt you
When the curtain’s call
Is the last of all
When the lights fade out
All the sinners crawl
So they dug your grave
And the masquerade
Will come calling out
At the mess you've made
- At the end of the day, us people with demons
have to reveal ourselves and our true pain is
shown
- Everyone is just waiting for you to fall too
- The people with disguises of goodness are
standing by waiting to pull you down at your first
moment of weakness
Don’t want to let you down
But I am hell bound
Though this is all for you
Don’t want to hide the truth
No matter what we breed
We still are made of greed
This is my kingdom come
This is my kingdom come
- He doesn’t want to disappoint them by
revealing that they aren’t as strong and good
as they seem
- He cant lie to them. And although his mask
has hid the truth for this long, he cant go to
far and end up hurting them
• When you feel my heat
Look into my eyes
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide
Don’t get too close
It’s dark inside
It’s where my demons hide
It’s where my demons hide
• They say it's what you make
I say it's up to fate
It's woven in my soul
I need to let you go
Your eyes, they shine so bright
I want to save that light
I can't escape this now
Unless you show me how*
- Some say the way you turn out is how much
you do to control your life
- He believes the things that change you
aren’t in your hands to control
- His demons have become a part of him and
the only way to protect them is to let them go
This person is so pure, and he cant let himself
ruin that pure happiness
- He HAS to set them free
- HOPE
SYMBOLISM
• Symbolism- The practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships
• To help portray the darkness surrounding his world, the writer uses many examples of symbolism to deepen the lyrics
• EX: “And the saints we see are all mad of gold”
• - This represents the masks that people wear to hide their dark sides
TONE OF VOICE
• Tone- Tone helps the reader ascertain the writer’s feelings towards a particular topic and this in turn influences the reader’s understanding of the story.
• The narrator of this song speaks of having to let this person go out of love throughout the whole song until the very last line.
• EX: “I’ve got to let you go, Unless you show me how”
• - This immediate turn is the only thing that gives the reader an idea of hope, and the possibility of change.
REPETITION
• Repetition- The deliberate repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several successive verses, clauses, or paragraphs to emphasize or reiterate and idea or emotion.
• In order to get certain ideas across about human behavior and why he is the way he is, the narrator uses some examples of repetition
• EX: “This is my kingdom come, This is my kingdom come”
• - Because this was him expressing that this was how good is world is going to get, this repetition is used almost as him repeating it to himself to accept that nothing can get much better.
OVERALL THEME
• Even though the song is specifically about a human intimacy that is troubled by a mans past, I believe the overall theme of the song is about people’s pasts. Everyone has demons in their
pasts whether it is from relationships, injuries, losses, or trauma. If you let these demons define you, a fake smile won’t save you.
SONG COMPARISON
• Demons- Imagine Dragons
• Demons is about a man trying to hide his past from someone he loves, but is so troubled that his masks of happiness aren’t going to shelter them.
• Carmen- Lana Del Rey
• Carmen is about a girl who comes off as happy and fun loving, but she is dark and troubled. She is a master at disguising her sadness but is hurting inside all of the time.
CITATIONS
•Literary device definitions- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/symbolism
• http://literary-devices.com/content/tone
•http://quizlet.com/4309213/ap-english-literary-terms-repetition-parallelism-and-inversion-012611-flash-cards/
•Lyrics- http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/imaginedragons/demons.html
•Eye- http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://eofdreams.com/data_images/dreams/eye/eye-03.jpg&imgrefurl=http://eofdreams.com/eye.html&h=1073&w=1431&sz=601&tbnid=nZgYBkLPk2NVMM:&tbnh=91&tbnw=122&zoom=1&usg=__dIh7wpkOhx9heMlc-Hd5UvepJJg=&docid=CAW2sQBfdDXL3M&sa=X&ei=jBqvUcX1Duv_4APV54FY&ved=0CEMQ9QEwAw&dur=353
•Girl-http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/girl-habit-tumblr-111612
•Candle-http://eofdreams.com/candle.html
•Statue-http://architecture.about.com/od/greatbuildings/ig/New-Wonders/Christ_the_Redeemer-lge2.htm
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