Rewrite the Stars: A Lesson on Courtship, Romance and Love (Song Analysis)
The song “Rewrite the Stars”, sung by Zac Efron and Zendaya while their characters were having a moment in the movie “The Greatest Showman”, has seemed to take a life of it’s own. It is not a chart-topper, but it has seemingly gained a cult-like following.
But little do people know that “Rewrite the Stars” is not just a song, but a subtle metaphor of courtship. In the song, a man and a woman are singing to each other, and their voices and the lyrics somewhat mirror the courtship process and the progression of such a relationship. In a way, the song subtly explains the mechanics of courtship, romance and how love is developed. So let us see how.
The first verse is a man singing which is symbolically important. The man sings first because in a courtship process, the man must always make the first move, and out of all the other women available, he has chosen his ‘target’, per se, or he has chosen the woman he wants to court.
The man is putting his past behind him when he begins his attempt. Maybe he was a womanizer in the past. Maybe he has a history of insecurities or past failures with women. Maybe he has been heartbroken, or he is trying to repent for his sins against other women. Maybe he is finally opening his heart to love and giving himself a chance.
So at the beginning of every courtship process, the man moves in and makes his intentions clear, as heard by the lyrics:
“You know I want you. It’s not a secret I try to hide”
The man is leading the process, taking charge and taking a chance with the woman, making himself vulnerable to rejection and heartbreak, and has set his sights on his woman, as the lyrics say:
“But you’re here in my heart so who can stop me if I decide that you’re my destiny”
He picks up his balls and opens up the possibility of them being together, and he takes the necessary steps towards it. He is forward with his intentions, but not too forward to the point that the woman is pressured and scared away, as the lyrics mirror is subtle proposal to the woman:
“What if we rewrite the stars, say you were made to be mine. Nothing could keep us apart, you’ll be the one I was meant to find”
He is spurred on as he notices that the woman is starting to reciprocate and feel the same way. However, the man does not get complacent, as the woman’s mind can change anytime. The lyrics says:
“I know you want me. We’re bound to break and my hands are tied”
However, of course, it’s not easy, and the woman doesn’t make it easy for him. Even he is not completely sure that he has made the right decision to court the woman. He wonders if she is all that she seems to be. He wonders if they will even work if they are together. He feels a slight pull away from her, as he learns more about the woman and as he fights the doubts inside his head. As the lyrics say:
“You claim it’s not in the cards, fate is pulling you miles away and out of reach from me”
The second verse is a woman singing, which means that in a courtship process, the woman is the one that chooses to entertain a suitor. She has chosen a man to see if he is what she is looking for. She is willing to open herself up to this man, and is ready to give her love to him if he proves himself to be worthy.
The woman is giving love a chance, whether it’s for the first time or hopefully the last time. Maybe she was done wrong by men before. Maybe she was heartbroken, cheated on, played with. Maybe she has struggled with self-esteem issues, or maybe she was the heartbreaker at one point, or maybe she manipulated men in the past and is now trying to turn a new leaf. Maybe through this man her walls can come down.
However, because of her experiences and her biology as a woman, in that she has the burden of being the child-bearer, she is being very careful, no matter how strong her feelings are towards him. The song continues:
“You think it’s easy. You think I don’t want to run to you”
She will test the man and make it hard for him, to see if he truly is serious about her, no matter how much she wants to give in to him. A woman wants to succumb to the man, but in order for that to happen, the courtship cannot be easy for him.
She will make him endure small rejections, such as maybe blowing him off on dates, and withholding some of her affections. This is to see how persevering he is. However, she has not rejected him completely, and she continues to give him chances to prove just how genuine his intentions are. She puts him to the test, with the lyrics:
“But there are mountains, and there are doors that we can’t walk through”
She doesn’t mean to make it hard for the man, as all these tests occur at a subconscious level for the woman, but she doesn’t want to jump in immediately, as the man can easily leave her heartbroken, as the man does not have the burden of bearing children. So she says:
“No one can rewrite the stars, how can you say you’ll be mine. Everything keeps us apart, and I’m not the one you were meant to find”
Slowly, but surely, the woman’s walls start to come down, and the relationship progresses further. The man has been able to endure for this long and has never given up, and the woman can finally see and feel that this man is here to stay. So she finally succumbs to him and falls for him. The man and woman sing in unison, which symbolizes that they are finally coming together:
“All I want is to fly with you, all I want is to fall for you, so just give me all of you”
However, there is still the problem of how the relationship will work. The man has finally romanced and won the woman over, but now the real work begins. The final chorus is symbolic of the man’s persistence and the woman’s resistance coming together in harmony, as they learn to compromise and become one. They ask “how”? How can this work? They both take a chance on love and each other, as both sing:
“How do we rewrite the stars, Say you were made to be mine”
If the courtship is successful, they enter into a relationship (some view courtship as the entire time spent before marriage, but for the purpose of this article, we will take courtship as the time before entering a committed relationship). If the relationship is successful, they enter marriage, and ideally enter a lifetime with each other, which of course should be the end goal of any courtship process. At this point, they have both forged and converged their destinies together, or in other words, they were both able to “Rewrite the Stars”.
