What narrative device links Taylor Swift’s “august,” “cardigan,” and “betty”?

A love triangle links Taylor Swift’s “august,” “cardigan,” and “betty.”

The three Folklore songs tell related stories from different viewpoints. “August” follows the unnamed girl involved in a summer romance with James. “Cardigan” is associated with Betty, while “Betty” gives James’s perspective and addresses the fallout from his actions.

This device lets Swift revisit the same emotional situation through separate narrators. The songs are not presented as a single chronological recording; instead, listeners piece together the relationships from recurring names, memories, and events.

A common mistake is to call “august” a purely autobiographical song. Swift described Folklore as using fictional narratives and imagined characters. The love triangle is therefore a storytelling framework rather than a confirmed account of Swift’s own life. Its layered perspectives are one of the album’s most discussed structural features.