Love in the Dark

This song is about leaving someone behind. She has realized that whoever she is leaving does nothing but hurt her. It may not be intentional on his part, but nevertheless she can't stay anymore and she has to move on.

I can definitely relate to this song. My boyfriend and I broke up 6 months ago in 3 weeks. At first I wanted him in my life still as a friend but I have slowly realized that I can't have him in my life at all. Everything about our relationship now is dark and sad. When I see him I want to turn around and walk in the opposite direction. I've realized that he is no good for me in any capacity. This song made me realize exactly what I needed to do--walk away completely. So that is what I've done. We were co-workers--I quit my job. No one really understands the effect that he still has on me. He's reckless with my heart and can't be trusted to hold it responsibly so he doesn't get to at all.

We recently had a bit of a falling out and I told him that I couldn't be his friend anymore. When he asked why, I asked him to listen to this song. Sometimes the only way to move on from a relationship, regardless of it being romantic or not, is to walk away completely. For the first time I'm doing something for myself, putting my happiness and well being before his and I couldn't be happier.

This is a heartbreak ballad for nice guys everywhere.

Coming out of a broken engagement after four years together, this haunting song resonates with me more than any other song from "25."

It is an apology and a resolution -- "you're not what I wanted and I'm sorry." Likewise, my ex-fiance fell apart on me and ultimately concluded that, although she thought that I was a wonderful person, she could not marry me.

Opening with the elements of shame attached to any significant break up, Adele sets the stage: Don't look at me / Don't watch me leave / Don't try to win me back. The fallout from breakups is often embarrassing, but there's nothing that he can do. The end is here.

Then come the worst words one can hear in a relationship: "I don't love you any more."

She explains that she's merely "being cruel to be kind," as all breakups require one party to be uncompromising. Feelings will be hurt.

They are "oceans apart," beautiful phraseology even if unoriginal. However, that there is "so much space between us" is tragically simple yet eloquent. There is no attraction left, the once existing chemistry is gone.

The sting to nice guys comes in the vague justifications. What's wrong? Well, "everything" has changed her. Pressed for more, she offers that she wants to “live” and “not just survive.” It is a dagger to nice guys, representing the terrible fate of being dumped for not being edgy enough to be attractive.

At this point, that we have “given her something she can’t live without,” that she meant everything she said, and that “it is the world to her that you are in her life” mean little. We have been rejected. Instructing us not to underestimate ourselves, and “don’t fall apart” because she “can’t face our breaking heart” is almost patronizing.

Most powerful is the recurring theme that it is all fait accompli and cannot be changed. The words “already defeated” spell it out — nothing can be done. It is a loss. The chilling ending puts the punctuation to it: “I don’t think you can save me.”

It’s what makes the song so wonderful. The song captures all the elements of these sad times in our lives when we realize that it is over and will never be again.

My granddaughter selected this song to sing in a pageant. It is a Native American pageant given we are from the original clan / we are original to this land- we did not invade. She selected the song to educate others about boarding schools that stole children from their tribes and many never got to return home. She knows an elder who endured the trauma of a boarding school and has scars permanently attached to her skin. My granddaughter is 11 and is very aware of the many violation's natives have endured and continue to endure. The lyrics demonstrate a struggle between a young girl living in her natural environment and then being uprooted and dressed in foreign clothing- it's an internal struggle between the two - assimilation-- "oceans apart"- conflicting identity- I want to be native but being forced ( colonization) to look like someone else.- "so much space between us" - the school kid is nothing like the original native kid. "stop asking me to stay"- adopt your ways and forsake my culture, "You have given me something that I can't live without"- my original person you are trying to change forever- I am native - always. She setup props on stage - one of the young girl in her buckskin and long hair and then one in a uniform and chopped off hair. - Showing how this assimilation permanently damaged her self-confidence, identity, self-worth, loss of family- loss of direction. Permanence of a trauma.

I have a bit of a different take on this song. I'm in love with someone who is emotionally unavailable due to a divorce and I can totally hear these lyrics coming from her vantage point. No matter how kind or caring I am, she can't love me because she is "in the dark" emotionally. This creates "space between us" and we can never close the gap. I think in the song she is being "cruel to be kind"...letting him go because he is just spinning his wheels. She wanted the relationship, tried hard to make it work and appreciated all his love, but realizes her emotional condition won't allow her to love him the way he loves her. "Everything changed me"...meaning her past breakup. "I don't think you can save me"...meaning his love can't pull her out of the dark emotional condition she is in. Maybe not true at all, but that's how I hear it.

I think this song's about two people in a relationship which they don't talk to each other much and don't share their secrets so it's caused space between them, and even though they love each other, if they continue this relationship they'll only continue living and won't be truly alive. So even though the boy's kind and good to her (Adele) she can't stand this situation and she's leaving him.

Well that was the impression I got! Hope it's useful :):)

An end of a relationship. Obvious. But what kind of relationship? The line "We're not the only ones" changed everything for me. I think this is about the end of an affair where one or both of them were in relationships and having an affair with each other. "Love in the Dark"? Love hidden because it's an affair...love in the dark - not out in the open and in the light. She can't do it anymore so she's walking away...

Maybe a little dark for an Adele song, but it's what I hear...

This is not just a normal break up, this is her ending an affair because she can’t love him in the dark any longer (meaning hidden). “This is never ending, we have been here before” - obviously this isn’t the first try of ending it, she knows it’s a bad thing to have an affair but we all know what it’s like and it’s not easy to end one. “It feels like we’re oceans apart, there is so much space between us” means there is her husband or her lover’s wife or family standing between them OR it could be an off-limits affair someone she’s not supposed to love and has finally pulled herself together to try and end it. “But I don’t want to carry on like everything is fine” is an obvious proof of it being an affair break up because someone having an affair is known as ‘carrying on’ (at least in Britain). “We’re not the only ones, I don’t regret a thing” - another obvious proof of there being more parties involved. Then she says she wants to live and not just survive - survive meaning loving him in the secret, loving him IN THE DARK!