Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral

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  General Comment:With the overwhelming monotony of his daily life, the realization that he is responsible for the decline of his own life, and the loss of his ability to lose himself through sex and control all collapsing in on our protagonist, he reaches the bottom of the spiral, hence the name. Here, his only mentality is that suicide is the only way to stop Mr. Self-Destruct/the Ruiner/himself from causing himself any more harm. The beautiful downward spiral motif heard periodically throughout the album culminates in the first moments of this song. Its no longer an ominous, impending cloud of doom; this time, that cloud has reached him. So he picks up a gun, puts it to his head, and pulls the trigger.
  
  I've always imagined the part with the motif and the screaming and the lyrics to be that moment that he pulls the trigger and the bullet is going through his skull and then brain, his thoughts captured in super-slow motion. With one pull of the trigger (he couldn't believe how easy it was) he is done with what he believed to be his last option (problems do have solutions you know, a lifetime of fucking things up fixed) and there is no turning back (in one determined flash.) Finally, his mental pain numbs, the antagonistic Mr. Self-Destruct disappears, and everything spills out of his head. Only the other side of the spectrum, his humanity, his soul and essence that was long forgotten for the majority of the album, is left to ponder what he has just done to himself.

  Flag HammerFloydon December 09, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:Here is my personal idea about the song. I see TDS as having 3 possible endings, in the form of "Big Man With a Gun," "The Downward Spiral," and "Hurt." In "big man," the main character, through frustration and anger at his life, finally snaps. He takes the gun he could have used to kill himself, and instead kills a random person, finally succumbing to madness. In "The Downward Spiral," instead of killing someone else, he decides that he is the problem, and kills himself. The reason this song is sung in the third person is because he is dead, so somebody else tells the story of what happened to the listener. In "Hurt," the final track, he decides not to kill himself or others, but succumbs to drug addiction. He hates what he has become, until the end. When he says, "if I could start again," he decides to leave his life behind, and start again, somewhere "a million miles away." In the final message of positivity, he says he would find a way, and he finds a reason to keep living. Personally, I think that hurt is the actual ending.

  Flag sarerateon November 04, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:The mechanical voice is basically like a demon trying to tempt human to hurt himself and others and it causes him to go crazy. In this song, the human concludes that he must kill him self to kill the mechanical voice. So he tries. Then comes Hurt. You find out that when he tried to kill himself, he killed the mechanical voice only. The human has won, but he's scarred for life from his experience so he kills himself again. That's what I think. But only Trent knows for sure.

  Flag ncd46on December 17, 2011   Link

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  Memory:This song and the whole Downward Spiral album reminds me if Taxi Driver and this song reminds me of the end scene where he shoots that guy in the face

  Flag JinxMoodyon April 08, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I love this song so much. But i have to disagree that the screaming means insanity. The screaming means pain, and the fine line between the pain you can deal with and the pain that needs to end with a gun. I agree with bobbyjay41 on Hurt, that someone could be speaking from beyond the grave. However, maybe the narrator could be speaking to his best friend that is dead.

  Flag ColumbineKidon October 27, 2009   Link

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    Exactly, the way I see it, it's the pain you feel when you just want so badly to end it all, but you also know deep deep inside that there is a little hope.
    
    It's the worst pain you'll ever feel, I've been there. :(

    Flag cumanzoron November 07, 2009  
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  General Comment:Oh, and beregond right before me, I think the first half of your comment is right, about the character's realization that he will eventually commit suicide. I also like your description about this particular song.
  
  I disagree on "Hurt", though. I think that somehow, the character may be speaking from beyond the grave. That's just me, though. I could be wrong.

  Flag bobbyjay41on October 14, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:DAFTBONCHKOOPA on page 1 is exactly right. This song represents the actual suicide in the story of the downward spiral. That's why there is screaming- the character's gone completely insane and has finally pulled the trigger and killed himself. Somehow, though, this story is still being told by the main character, now from beyond the grave.

  Flag bobbyjay41on October 14, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:Hmm. There seems to be a lot of debate about whether the protagonist of this concept album actually commits suicide. This track is the album's namesake, and it seems the obvious climax. I feel that:
  
  -Mr. Self Destruct establishes the character, and his demons, and establishes the concept of the album.
  -The meat-and-potatoes of the album represents a building of pressure as the character comes closer and closer to the act of suicide (while confronting religion, sex, drugs, etc).
  
  - The Downward Spiral IS the climax- wherein the protagonist, having sunk further and further into his own personal hell, is finally confronting his own destruction. Lots of people think ABOUT suicide, even CONSIDER suicide. But it's a much smaller group that actually experiences a moment when they are really going to do it- noose around the neck, gun in the mouth, ready. I think The Downward Spiral is the agony of staring the devil directly in the face.
  
  -Hurt has a sense, for me, of understanding and (of all things!) humility. It says to me that the character practiced a little "cutting", using physical pain as a way to bring themselves back to reality, but couldn't go through the act of suicide. The realization that he had no control over the cessation of his suffering, not even control through escape via suicide, effectively broke him of any anger or rage- by the final track, he is utterly and completely without hope.'
  
  This has just always been my interpretation. Surely the protagonist of the album doesn't HAVE to be Trent (the speaker is not always the author, as it is in literature). But obviously he's treading on familiar ground, or he wouldn't get these feelings so perfectly right. It makes more sense to me, aside from the context of the album, that Trent could relate more to almost-suicide than actual suicide. After all, he obviously didn't commit the latter.
  
  All of this imHo, of course.
  
  

  Flag beregondon August 20, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:i belive that in the TDS story, this is where the character has finally realized that his vices aren't doing him any good and that the voices in his head are near total victory. I for one DO belive that this is where the character ends his life. Just look at my explanation for hurt and this little analysis will be over and hopefully make some sense.

  Flag Exaltedon July 31, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I don't know any possible facts about the songs, but here's my version.
  
  I think Hurt is the depression, the thoughts of the main character, and how he regrets the bad things he has done, and the good things he didnt do. It's the only thing in his head, and it's driving him towards the worst and easiest solution.
  
  The Downward Spiral is his madness, the emotions and feelings of what he shows on Hurt overcoming his reason mind, he snaps and realizes how fucking easy it would be to just pull the trigger to make it all go away. His final solution: Suicide.
  
  How I see it, the first half of the song is him imagining the suicide, seeing mostly only the good parts of it. Second half is the act itself.
  
  
  Oh well. Both songs are beautiful, that's all what really matters. It's easy to think too much in to it when the subject is a masterpiece like this.

  Flag Scabbed15on May 08, 2009   Link

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