| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – As I Sat Sadly by Her Side Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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My interpretation of the final verses is that she's crying because she feels sorry for him as he can't just contemplate the world without judging, while his smiling but I don't think that he does it because of her reaction, i think he smiles because he understands what she means. |
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| Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Kindness of Strangers Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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The first impression is that the story is pretty clear, as the guy above describes, but there is one detail which I'd like to remark: she undoes the latch without any reasonable explanation. So, my interpretation is that when the lyrics say "Poor Mary thought that she might die/When she saw the ocean for the first time", Mary feels that now that she's finally seen the sea she's ready to die and also get relieved from all her misery. That's the reason why she, in some way, "offends" Richard Slade by not letting him in and later does something that, unless you make this interpretation (that it is her will to die after she's accomplished her ambition) has no sense: to undo the latch of the door. That's why the title is "The Kindness of Strangers", to Mary what Richard Slade did was paradoxically an act of kindness, as her death was the thing she strived for. This interpretation also turns ironical the last verses. |
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