James is the teenage boy in the love triangle told across Taylor Swift’s “august,” “Cardigan,” and “Betty.”
In “august,” the narrator describes a short summer romance with James. The song presents her longing and uncertainty as she realizes that the relationship may never become permanent. James is already connected to Betty, and the three songs gradually reveal the emotional consequences of that overlap.
“Cardigan” is associated with Betty’s perspective, while “Betty” gives James the chance to address the situation directly. This structure lets Folklore treat the story as a set of imagined memories rather than a straightforward autobiographical confession.
Listeners sometimes mistake Augustine or Augusta for the boy’s name. Swift said she imagined the unnamed narrator of “august” with names such as Augusta or Augustine, but James is the male character in the triangle. The narrator’s name is not stated in the song itself.