
“It doesn’t matter if it was a relationship or a friendship. When it ends, your heart breaks.” As stated by Digital Romance, no matter what kind of relationship you may be involved in in your life it will cause heartbreak. In Shawn Mendes’ “Mercy” he takes the viewer along with him on an emotional roller coaster that he is riding. The videos flips back and forth between two scenes that portray the struggles in action that he is dealing with emotionally. Shawn Mendes shows the reality of heart break and how it can consume a person which allows the viewer to feel what he is feeling. Everyone will go through heart break in their life time and it is something that does usually not come lightly but eventually you will overcome that heartbreak and become a new and stronger person than you were before. Overall, heart break will essentially leave you begging for mercy and once that mercy is granted you will come out stronger than ever. Mendes uses the two different scenes in the video to show two different side effects of what heartache feels like.

The first scene of the video allows the viewer to feel the feeling of being consumed in a situation that leaves you drowning and fighting for air. In the beginning of the video when the music starts the first scene that the viewer experiences is Shawn Mendes stuck in a car slowly drowning under water. At the very beginning of this scene it may seem as if he is not as scared or worried about the situation that is going on around him. He is just leisurely dealing with the situation. By taking a look at how he is dealing with this, it could be related to the beginning of a friendship or relationship. When things first begin to start out you are not going to pay attention to the flaws of the relationship or you could be ignoring them so that you do not have to worry about them. Most people want everything to seem perfect and work in their favor in the beginning of a new relationship. Slowly those flaws that may have been ignored are going to come back and slowly consume you. This can be shown throughout the rest of the video when Mendes is slowly starting to become more worried about the fact that he is stuck in a car going under water. It is as if he realizes that he cannot suppress the flaws now and has to deal with them but, since they have been put away for some time they will come back at him even more noticeable than before. He becomes more panicked at the situation he is in and wants to get out of it. No matter how perfect you may want your relationship to be there will always be some sort of flaw. It also may be that the other in the relationship may not realize what they are doing but it slowly hurts you in the end. It is as if you are allowing yourself to be played because you do not want to deal with the heartache. In this point of the video the viewer can see how Mendes is dealing with the emotions that he is feeling. He is coming to terms with what is going on around him and realizes that he cannot let himself feel that way anymore. As stated in the song, “Take it easy on my heart/ Even though you don’t mean to hurt me/ You keep tearing me apart”. These lyrics show how he is slowly drowning in heartache. He is trapped in a situation that he cannot find a way to escape from. 

Along with the physical action in this scene that show his feelings, the colors of the scene add on to the emotions. Throughout this scene in the video, the color scheme used is dull with blues and greys adding to the eerie feeling. These colors add to emotions that he feels making the viewer feel sad for what he faces in the video. While the viewer may feel sad for Mendes, it also pulls on the viewers heartstrings that may bring up feelings from a previous relationship that may have hurt them. While the colors make the viewer feel bad for Mendes, the colors also rouse feelings in the viewer by bringing up feelings in the viewer that they may have faced from personal experience. The visual content allows the viewer to experience the feeling of drowning that Shawn Mendes is facing in the video. The video enacts the viewer to feel like they might also be drowning because of the way Mendes uses the visual elements to pull them in. The camera has a zoomed in perspective so you feel as if you are closer to Mendes. 

While the first scene shows Shawn slowly drowning from the heartache, the second main scene in the video shows Shawn Mendes bouncing from playing one instrument to the next as if he being used to please his significant other. This whole scene is set in a dark warehouse room with the single light in the middle of the room on him. The main focus of this scene is on him playing the instruments. He goes from playing the piano, to the guitar, then to the drums. With each instrument being played he shows more and more emotion of what seems like a strain on him. It is as if he is constantly doing what he can to please another person rather than doing would be good for him. The spotlight is on him to signify he constantly needs to please others. Usually when you see a spotlight on a person it is because they are meant to be the center of attention. They are the star of show that is usually put on to please the viewers in the audience.  In “Mercy” Shawn sings, “I’m a puppet on your strings/ And even though you have good intentions/ I need you to set me free” which shows how he knows that he is being played. He has the realization that the other person may not mean to be using him but, that feeling still has him trapped like he cannot get out. While he wants to do what will make the other person in the relationship happy, he needs to do what is good for him. Breaking those strings that have a tight grip on him will allow him to get on with life. 

Although Shawn faces those struggles throughout his relationship he finally finds a way to breathe and break the strings attached to him. In the music video at 3:00 there is a 10 second period where suspense builds up to his breaking point where he is finally set free of what was holding him back. The suspense makes the viewers prepare themselves for what is about to come.   Again the first focus of the two scenes is the scene where he was trapped inside of the car. He lets out a silent scream and builds up the strength the break the windows in the car to set himself free. He swims up to the top of the water allowing him to finally breathe. He is no longer being dragged under by the heartbreaker. He does not need to worry about anyone or anything holding him under he can be his own person. While he can finally breathe again, the other scene shows Shawn breaking the instruments tying him down. He is no longer a puppet being made to satisfy his significant other but an individual free to do what he wants. The breaking point in these two scenes show how eventually strength will raise above all and you will be able to set yourself free from what is holding you back. Eventually mercy will come to those in the end, you just have to fight for it. 

Every relationship comes along with some sort of struggle. In the case of “Mercy” one person of the relationship is getting dragged down for caring more than the other. There are strings attached constantly making your moves for you but you will eventually be able to cut yourself loose of the ties. Luckily for Shawn he was able to set himself free and get the mercy he was hoping for. 
