The Judge

The song I am analyzing is The Judge by Twenty-One Pilots. It is on the album Blurryface. Blurryface is a character the band made up that represents their insecurities. In this song, Blurryface seems to be the dark, egotistical side of the singer, and the song is asking for forgiveness of Blurryface from "the Judge." He knows things he has done are wrong, but he wants to be forgiven, "set free".

At the beginning of the song he says, "When the leader of the bad guys sang/something soft and soaked in pain/I heard the echo from his secret hideaway." There are two major literary devices at play here. The first is imagery, it allows the listener to see the "leader of the bad guys" from a far outside perspective by using words like echo and hideaway. It seems to disconnect the singe from this bad guy, especially when later the singer says, "I don't know if this song is a surrender or a revel/I don't know if this one is about me or the devil," making it hard to discern whether the bad guy is himself or someone else. However, his repetition of "set me free" throughout the song puts it in perspective as part of himself. Therefore, this "leader of the bad guys" becomes a side of the singer that he is attached from and in no control over.

The other literary device in that first line of the first verse is paradox. The leader of the bad guys would be expected to be singing something harsh and angry, not "soft and soaked in pain." This paradox sets a tone of helplessness and despair on the song. The singer feels helpless over the loss of control over his ego. He feels despair at what he's done and wants forgiveness.

Finally, the line "and his four walls declared him insane" uses personification to develop this insanity and loss of control. Throughout the song there are hints of insanity, like the lines "three light are lit but the fourth one's out/I can tell because it's a bit darker than the last night's bout" which don't seem to make much sense either.