Character Structure – Part 5: Allegory (example: “Young Royals”)

This article is pay-walled because it’s part of the ‘Young Royals’ character analysis series, which will be locked in its entirety . (If you’re interested in the free content, you’re always welcome to check out the metaphor series, which starts here.)

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‘Madison, Madison,/

you make my heart bounce like badminton.

Is it a crime/

that I want to make you mine/

‘cause you’re so damn fine?

On my knees,/

I crawl.

So, please/

let me take you to the ball.’

Madison McCoy is the most important character for understanding what ‘Young Royals’ is actually all about.

She is the most mysterious and enigmatic character, as well, because her backstory only talks to us in riddles like a sphinx.

But if we don’t try and solve those perplexing riddles, assemble all those cryptic clues she keeps throwing at us and reconstruct her story puzzle piece by puzzle piece, interrogate her about her past and her sexual experiences and unseal all those seals around her, we won’t understand what this show is actually all about; we will just keep looking at the same old story told to us on the surface of the text, instead of looking at the actual story buried underneath those layers and layers of deception, subtextual clues and lies.

Madison McCoy is more important than anyone else on this show if we want to lay bare both the deep structure of the text and the dark horrors carefully hidden therein by the writers.

To work out what she is all about, we will have to look at a new storytelling technique today. And in the process, we will examine both the subtle reference to Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick’ the writers have hidden in the show’s subtext and an ancient biblical story they’ve alluded to, as well.

Now, let’s grab our deck of tarot cards, arrange our crystal ball to our satisfaction and ignite all the incense sticks we can find because we’re going to need them…

If you feel that this has just been the most mystifying and bewildering introduction to any article on this blog so far, then good! That’s exactly what it’s supposed to feel like. 

And if you say, “This introduction sounds like it knows more than it’s saying out loud, and I don’t like that,” then just imagine Madison McCoy sitting on a window-sill and replying with an enigmatic smile on her face, “Isn’t that the point, though?”