This is why I love the Smiths, you can interpret every song in any way! The sexual ambiguity, for one, helps, and it'd just great that everyone can apply it to their life in some way. This site, naturally, increased my love for them about tenfold, because now i have about ten more meanings for each song. I always saw the coma as being figurative, I saw one possible meaning being someone trying to pretend that he's over his ex-girlfriend, when he's quite clearly not, given that he still refers to her as his girlfriend. When you think about it, a coma is kind of like death with a chance of resurrection, and so he tells his friends he's over her, but he leaves the option of falling in love with her again open, so that if she ever loves him back again, he won't have to explain himself. (Is this making sense?) I also thought it could be about someone who is trying to get over his ex-girlfriend, but is failing, he's in a limbo where he realises and starts to acknowledge her failings, hence 'There were times when I could have murdered her', but he still loves her depite the fact that he can see she's not perfect. He tries to cut her out of his life ('No I don't want to see her'), but he suddenly starts to need her again ('Will you please let me see her?'). Then, he finally decides to go ahead with it, but still needs to see her one last time to 'send him on his way' ('Let me whisper my last goodbyes'). But whatever way you take it, it's still a beautiful song.
This is why I love the Smiths, you can interpret every song in any way! The sexual ambiguity, for one, helps, and it'd just great that everyone can apply it to their life in some way. This site, naturally, increased my love for them about tenfold, because now i have about ten more meanings for each song. I always saw the coma as being figurative, I saw one possible meaning being someone trying to pretend that he's over his ex-girlfriend, when he's quite clearly not, given that he still refers to her as his girlfriend. When you think about it, a coma is kind of like death with a chance of resurrection, and so he tells his friends he's over her, but he leaves the option of falling in love with her again open, so that if she ever loves him back again, he won't have to explain himself. (Is this making sense?) I also thought it could be about someone who is trying to get over his ex-girlfriend, but is failing, he's in a limbo where he realises and starts to acknowledge her failings, hence 'There were times when I could have murdered her', but he still loves her depite the fact that he can see she's not perfect. He tries to cut her out of his life ('No I don't want to see her'), but he suddenly starts to need her again ('Will you please let me see her?'). Then, he finally decides to go ahead with it, but still needs to see her one last time to 'send him on his way' ('Let me whisper my last goodbyes'). But whatever way you take it, it's still a beautiful song.