Eleanor Rigby

Eleanor Rigby

The song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney called “Eleanor Rigby” was a very well written song that really showed the irony of how two people could be so close to one another, yet so far away in their own words. This song talks about Eleanor Rigby who is a lonely woman who works at a church. She is all alone and she “picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been,” showing that she has to stand by and watch as people get married and start happy lives together when really she doesn’t have anyone in her life. Also we have Father McKenzie who is the Father at the same church where Eleanor works, “writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear,” meaning that he writes these sermons, but no one shows up to listen to him talk. They both attend the same church, they are both alone each night wishing for someone to be with them, but they don’t see each other. I think it is ironic because they really could have just turned to each other, then they would have had someone to be with. In the end Eleanor dies and is buried in the cemetery of the same church that she used to work in, and Father McKenzie was the one who performed the ceremony to no one, because no one showed up, emphasizing the fact that she was truly alone. In the end Father McKenzie is still alone and we see just really how close they were.