Immortal Love

By: Sakasamanochou

The beauty of music is that they meaning of the notes or the lyrics are very rarely concrete. The meaning of a piece of music can differ from person to person. A sheet of notes can inspire many emotions, just as a page of lyrics can evoke many thoughts in a person. Frankly this can make it difficult to make a music video for a song and even more difficult to analyze the meaning of that video. Instead of simply hearing the notes and reading the lyrics, one must also watch the images chosen by the director and try to understand the reasons behind them. For the song and video My Immortal by Evanescence this can be difficult. How do you Analyze something in which the lyrics and the images in the video seem to be in opposition to one another.

The music of the song My Immortal purposefully evokes a sense of remorse in the listener. Both of the main instruments in the piece, piano and violin, are both instruments that easily create a melancholic feeling. The music in this selection would not be a listener's choice if contented and happy emotions were what they sought. The only section that seems to reflect any emotion other than sorrow is the music that precedes the final chorus. This particular section is much louder and more raucous due to the addition of electric guitars and drums along with the previously mentioned piano and violin. This section of music, while still sad in a way, has a definite edge of frustration and fortitude from the lyrics. It might be of some interest to add that this section of music was a later addition which was not recorded on the version of My Immortal included on 

Evanescence's album Fallen, but was simply placed in the music video to add a few shots of the rest of the band. The final measures of the song segue back into a near repeat of the opening measures indicating that the person who wrote the music and lyrics is still stuck at the same place they were when they began to write it. They are still in a state of denial over the situation, whatever that may be, and they refuse to acknowledge that something has really changed.

The Symbolism in this music video is fairly straight-forward once the basic idea is realized. There is an overall message to the scenes and once you realize what it is, the implications are quite clear. There are two people that dominate nearly every scene. A man dressed in a suit, looking depressed and listless, and a woman, barefoot and dressed all in white who looks lost and alone. The woman is alone in every scene, except for a few images in which she is walking around the edge of a fountain in a courtyard where there are children playing, however the children completely ignore her, as if they can't see her. The man is also constantly alone in his scenes, whether he is walking the streets of the town or sitting in front of his piano. He seems to be the one who wrote the song, as he is the one playing the notes from the song. It is clear from his posture that he is dispirited and his clothing seems to indicate that he has come from a funeral. All symbolism seems to point to the woman being dead and either not being able or willing to pass on. Her makeup, attire and actions all seem to point to this. Her face is pale and ghostly and her clothing is vaguely reminiscent of a funeral shroud, white and gauzy. She also never steps foot onto the ground in any scene, instead she is either lying down or up on a high place in every scene; the director is also careful to not show any shots of her 

that could show a reflection. Conversely, the man is shown to be walking and to have his feet placed firmly on the ground in several scenes and is purposefully shown as having a reflection several times. Another intimation of the woman's death is her depiction surrounded by autumn scenery, which is symbolic of death. During several scenes that are cut together the man and woman seem to be looking up at the sky at the same time, showing a sort of connection between the two which is further shown by the fact that she is singing the song that he is playing. It is quite obvious from all of these scenes that the two must have been quite close and he is obviously broken up by her loss.

The last piece of this music video there is to discuss is the lyrics. Just as in every other song by this artist, regret and sadness seem to play a major part in the lyrics. The lyrics also seem to have a sense of frustration in them as if the person who wrote them is sick of feeling these things. This sentiment seems to be well expressed by this line from the first verse, "If you have to leave, I wish that you would just leave. 'Cause your presence still lingers here and it won't leave me alone". Despite the original feeling you get from the video, which is that the song is being sung from the woman's point of view, further consideration of the lyrics seems to point to the song being the man's feelings on the death of his loved one. Lines such as "You used to captivate me by your resonating life. Now I'm bound by the life you left behind" strongly indicate that the song is from the point of view of the living; this ties in with the fact that the man is one playing the song after he returns from what appears to have been a funeral. The chorus of the song seems to reveal that whatever it was that caused the death of the person they are mourning was a long, drawn out process. "And I held your hand 

through all of these years, but you still have all of me." While the second part of this line seems to almost be angry that they can't let go and they are blaming the person who died for it.

Over all this song has a very depressing and somber mood which is a perfect back drop for its message about death and moving on. While the song does not end on a happy note and you are still left with the feeling that the person that wrote the song is still in denial the last chorus does add a tone of acceptance to the overall statement "though your still with me, I've been alone all along". Like most other songs by Evanescence this song simply feels real, the sentiments expressed are feelings that span continents and decades and the song has an easy appeal to anyone who has experience the death of someone close to them.