Analysis: “Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?”
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Songs about woman suffrage in the early twentieth century covered many topics. Music became an outlet for artists and songwriters to express their feelings on the woman’s suffrage movement, and therefore there were hundreds of songs about the movement. Sheet music also gave music publishers a chance to express their feelings on the movement with cover illustrations mainly supporting the woman’s suffrage movement and illustrations empowering women and showing women with a lot of strength. Artists used various tactics to create popular music that was also political, by putting new words to familiar tunes or by writing enticing lyrics that kept listeners interested. An example of a song that represented an opinion on woman’s suffrage was L. May Wheeler’s “Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?,” found on the compilation entitled Song of the Suffragettes. This song provides a satirical and somewhat humorous account of a songwriters’ opinion on the woman’s suffrage movement. The lyrics themselves put an emphasis on the diagnosis of the situation, keeping the listener intrigued and interested.
“Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?” is a satirical song that states just the opposite of what is going on. On the surface it seems as if the song is asking why the women of the United States are making such a big fuss, but near the end of the song, the lyrics ask why only men have the ability to vote. In the diagnosis, the lyrics state everything that is wrong with the current situation, which is why women are unable to vote. The song lists everything that women have done over time and things that each women does in her life; women labor homes, take care of the children, take a role in society, and as a whole they helped save the country, yet at the end of all this hard labor, men still get all the votes. The songwriter cleverly works all the problems into the song making it seem like it is ridiculous that women would ever ask to vote because they have so much to do. However, giving all of these reasons that were often given when arguing a woman’s right to vote, the listener sees that the ridiculous question is why women were not able to vote. The women do so much for the country – they raise the boys that eventually become men that protect our country, and sacrificed so much, to be rewarded with nothing and they are given no rights.
The prognosis within the lyrics are clear; women should be given the right to vote. It is obvious that women are very capable of accomplishing a lot in their lives. They may be protected by their husbands and not be neglected by their fathers, but at the same the song states women “have shared in the burdens they gave” and “labored this country to save,” demonstrating what the women have done for the good of the country and others. The solution can be summed up within the last line of the song: “Why should men get every vote?” This makes the listener understand the satirical nature of the song, emphasizing that women have been denied rights for so long that it’s impossible to keep them from voting for much longer.
“Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?” speaks to every woman. A woman listening to this song during the woman suffrage movement would most likely be able to identify with at least one of the lines in the song, giving them a form of motivation to join the woman’s suffrage movement. Whether the woman related to laboring over homes, taking care of children, or laboring to save the country, there is a lot of material in the song that could possibly motivate anyone to join in the fight for woman’s suffrage. Even a man listening to this song could be motivated to join the women’s suffrage movement, because the first verse speaks of husbands, sons, and fathers, which every man is at least one of those things. By demonstrating all the accomplishments women have made, it shows that women can do a lot. It doesn’t seem like that much more of a burden to allow these women to vote, and this underlying meaning could encourage anyone to help women earn the right to vote.
The diagnosis receives the emphasis in “Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?”. The lyrics emphasize the questioning of what could possibly be wrong; women are treated so well that it’s impossible they could even ask to have the ability to vote. This clever trick of singing the opposite of what is happening is very effective in making the listener really question why women don’t have the right to vote. Each verse ends with the question “Why are they wanting to vote”, which also emphasizes the satirical nature of the song. There is a repetitive nature of the lines of the song, always asking “oh, dear, what can the matter be,” acting as if the women are asking for a very large favor or something that is very burdening upon the rest of society. The song centers around women, and therefore in each verse the word “women” is at the beginning of each line, which shows how many different things women have done and what they have accomplished in their lives, individually and as a whole gender. The tune of the song itself is quiet catchy, and the rhyme scheme also makes it stick in a listener’s head more easily. The words are set to a popular parlor tune, therefore listeners of the time period would be quite familiar with the tune, making it that much easier for listeners to be attracted to the song.
The woman’s suffrage movement was a time where individuals were exposed to a plethora of advertisements, articles, and music, each expressing different opinions about the woman’s suffrage movement. Songs were a great way to advertise thoughts and ideas, because of the natural tendencies for people to listen to music and relate to the lyrics. “Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be” is a perfect example of a woman’s suffrage song. Its ironic lyrics are different than most other songs of the early twentieth century, and therefore strike a different chord within listeners of these suffrage songs. The song’s emphasis on the problems at hand also resonate with the listeners, and the myriad of examples give an opportunity for even more people to relate to the song. Women and men alike could find something in the song that they found true within their own lives, and this proved effective in gaining popularity and becoming well-known. L. May Wheeler’s “Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be” is a woman’s suffrage song that affected many people and definitely encouraged many of these people to be involved with the woman’s suffrage movement.
References
Wheeler, L. May. (1958). Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be. On Songs of the Suffragettes. Maryland: Smithsonian-Folkways Records.