“Turning Tables” – Adele Analysis

Title: Turning Tables Author: Adele Text Type: Lyric Date: 23/3/13 ‘Turning Tables’, by Adele, is about the singer struggling to get out of a relationship with a man who always seems to be changing things and making life difficult in the relationship. The lyrics describe her relationship as chaotic and filled with fights and anger. This is shown by words like fighting and war.

War is a word used to describe the big fights and meaningful problems in her partnership. “God only knows what we’re fighting for” shows that even she, the speaker, doesn’t know what she’s fighting about anymore.

The second paragraph describes how the man is always making things difficult and changing his mind about things and then the speaker tells the reader how controlling and constricting he is towards her; this is conveyed by the line “I can’t keep up with your turning tables, under your thumb I can’t breathe”. The third paragraph makes me feel sad as it describes the constricting feeling of a relationship where the man treats you with no respect, this song would mean more to a girl but I still find the lyrics meaningful.

The first line “I won’t let you close enough to hurt me” best describes this feeling as it tells the reader that she doesn’t want to be with him again as he’ll just hurt her all over again.

The man thinks he is giving much more love into the relationship than she is and he feels that she should care more. She clearly says that she can’t give him this; the line “I can’t give you the heart you think you gave me” tells me that she doesn’t want this relationship to happen if he is going to be turning the tables on her all the time.

The fourth paragraph uses an extended metaphor about ghosts and haunting to describe the opinion the singer has for her partner. The speaker tells the audience that she wants to leave her partner but won’t be able to forget his ‘ghost’. This paragraph is about her trying to leave him and about the struggles she went through to do it.

She is trying to stay strong and not to be hurt by him, the line “As hard as you try, no, I will never be knocked down” shows this but it also gives us an idea of the mans personality, it reveals ¬¬¬that he is purposefully trying to hurt her and to make her feel bad.

This song has many deep meanings but essentially describes her relationship as: dislike towards but him, but can’t do without him. This makes me feel sorry for the speaker as she doesn’t know what to do and she finds herself stuck in a rut, but she believes that next time she’ll be able to make her final decision, this is shown with “Next time I’ll be braver, I’ll be my own savior’.

The tone of the poem is heartbreak and about the wars of a relationship but has also shows a hint of optimism for future relationships, it helps me understand what she’s going through and what kind of situation she is in, I think that if I were in her situation I would too have shown him the door. I like this song because the melody is retrograde style: It plays a melody then repeats it in reverse; this emphasizes the title ‘Turning Tables’.

The lyrics are sung quietly and slowly which helps portray the emotion filled song.