The Rake...

The Rake’s Song by the Decembrists is a story about a widower who kills his children. It is told in first-person, from the killer's point of view. The man is married when he is twenty-one; his wife later has three children, and then dies giving birth to the fourth. He takes it upon himself to murder the three living children. First of all, the title includes the word Rake and the narrator also calls himself a rake. This is a slang term for a man who does as he pleases and does not have respect for women. He could also be called a womanizer. If the man glorifies the title of rake, why would he even want to be married? There is no indication of any obligation to marry. It is possible it was done on a whim. The story is also narrated as events that had happened in the past. It is unclear if the man disliked his children from the beginning, or if he later developed this feeling when his wife died. Since he had three children before his wife died, I am going to assume that he did not hate the children initially. The death of his wife may have been what pushed him to murder. Either way, the song still makes murder appear to be something good. It reminds me of shirts that feature a man and woman in wedding apparel with the words “game over” beneath them. I have only ever seen men wear them. Men are expected to be independent, masculine, and “rakes.” The man’s wife is dead, so he is supposed to be free. Men should not love their children, because it is his wife’s job. It clearly says that he does not regret murdering the children at the end of the song. These ideas are part of what the authors of Women’s Lives mean by “The Cultural Legitimation of Male Violence… includes cultural beliefs of male superiority and male control of women’s behavior and the family.” (WLMP 266) It is in this way that a person can put women and children on the same level as inferior to men. His children are useless without his wife. Seely states “I fear that violence, specifically male-perpetrated violence, has become so commonplace that it is largely accepted.” (200) For example, if this song were about a woman killing her children it would probably not be as popular. Women are expected to be loving and caring and the media always uses stories of women’s violence because it is more shocking. This song implies that men do not care about women and children (or anyone else for that matter), have aggressive anger that needs to be fulfilled with violence, and can murder without anyone noticing.

Work Cited

Seely, Megan. Fight Like a Girl. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Print.

Kirk, Gwyn and Okazawa-Rey, Margo. Women's Lives. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.