Jagged Little Pill Analysis

As a hidden track on her 1995 album, Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette assumes the perspective of an obsessed woman undone by grief, trespassing around her ex-boyfriend’s house while he is away at work. The song—aptly titled “Your House”—is sung in chilling a capella and details the speaker’s every step, as she enters his home “without ringing the bell” and spends an afternoon dancing in her ex-lover’s shower, lying in his bed, and playing his CDs. Though rational thought warns her that she “shouldn’t be here/ without permission,” another, more emotional impulse drives her to linger: “I took off my clothes/put on your robe/and I went through your drawers and I found your cologne.” These actions—equal parts stalking and reminiscing—function as a kind of weepy

But most of the poems we analyzed earlier are about more than fifty years old, which would explain a lot about the male dominance in relationships at that time frame, because Heterosexual romantic relationships have historically been all about men courting and “keeping” women. And it’s a powerful tradition. Whether it’s asking someone out, picking up the bill, open the door, carry the bags or being the main breadwinner in the family, many of the ideas we have about romance are still based on men being initiators and directors and women being receivers and caretakers. Yet society is changing. Women are increasingly entering the “male domains” of high-powered jobs and sexual