Eleanor Rigby Essay, Research Paper

Eleanor Rigby

Looking close at the poem turned hit song, Eleanor Rigby, reveals that it is the analysis of why the lonely people are so lonely. The two characters Eleanor Rigby and Father McKenzie are connected by the church, in this case it is same church in which Father McKenzie preaches and Eleanor Rigby cleans.

Eleanor Rigby / Picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been (lines 1- 4). It is not apparent immediately but Eleanor is a custodian at the church. When authors John Lennon and Paul McCartney talk about she Lives in a dream, (line 5) the responses almost always reflect on Eleanor s dream to some day marry. The controversial line Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door. (line 7) had many outlooks. The face is probably the face that she puts on to look beautiful, the jar being the makeup jar from which the face comes. She waits each night by her window, waiting for a caller, all prettied up with no one to notice (Entry Points). Eleanor Rigby thought of as a heroic character uses the jar by the door. (line 7) to mask the despair inadmissible by English middle class etiquette (The Eleanor). When I read the line I thought it symbolized two sides to her personality there is the side that waits in despair at her home only wanting someone to come and comfort her and the other side is the one she puts on when she goes out he door to cover up any real or over-whelming feelings that she might have.

Though he has a higher position in life than Eleanor Rigby, Father McKenzie is no more successful. He writes the words to a sermon that no one will hear, (line 14). When he says, no one will hear, it does not necessarily mean that no one is present in the church, it could only be no one is carrying through by practicing more kind and godly acts toward others. Father McKenzie is a lonely man which is obvious because:

No one comes near

Look at him working,

Darning his socks in the night when there s nobody there. (lines 15- 17)

He is doing what then would be thought of as women s work (darning his socks) while she does what men usually did in the 1960s (Entry Points). You would think the two would get together. But the church, in fact, makes it impossible, for priests cannot marry (Entry Points). Saying What does he care? (line 18) tells me that he has become accustomed to doing things that a wife would normally do around the household.

The magnitude of:

Eleanor Rigby

Died in a church and was buried along with her name.

Nobody came. (lines 23- 25)

Leads you to believe that Eleanor Rigby never married and was childless and friendless (Entry Points). At her funeral it seems the only thing he s [Father McKenzie] concerned about is his unsuccessful sermon. Wiping the dirt from his hands (line 27) even seems to suggest he s washing his hands of responsibility to this lonely woman (Entry Points). The remark was made that No one was saved. (line 28). It could have been a sarcastic remark made by Father McKenzie or foreshadowing, of the soon to be death of the lonely minister.

The minister of the church should see that he has a dreaming, lonely woman sitting in the back of the chapel, wedding after wedding. Because no actions were taken Eleanor Rigby dies alone, due to the fact she was unable to tell anyone how she felt. Father McKenzie s sermon will not be heard, not that he cares very much about his parishioners, because religious faith has perished along with communal essence. By having a definite end to the poem turned hit song we know that Eleanor Rigby s life was terminated.