From what I've gathered, and from what has been stated by the author himself, the album is the story of a failing relationship, told allegorically from the perspective of a hospice worker watching a loved patient die, the worker desperate to see the patient live, fantasizing about becoming the patient, and in the end feeling as desperately lonely and sick as if they were the dying patient themselves, becoming the patient in the end.
You see him mix up themes in "Two", where he talks about rushed marriage, and combines that with the dream of her lying in a hospital bed, his patient, and "Bear" where he talks about how her abortion caused a rift between them. Sylvia Plath and Sylvia Bloch come up often because the stories written about the two mix the theme of hospice and relationship death even more: books have been written from the perspectives of the others in their lives, how living with a suicidal woman is like being a hospice worker, you are desperate for her health and for the health of your relationship. The link posted above gives a good example of just that feeling.
From what I've gathered, and from what has been stated by the author himself, the album is the story of a failing relationship, told allegorically from the perspective of a hospice worker watching a loved patient die, the worker desperate to see the patient live, fantasizing about becoming the patient, and in the end feeling as desperately lonely and sick as if they were the dying patient themselves, becoming the patient in the end.
You see him mix up themes in "Two", where he talks about rushed marriage, and combines that with the dream of her lying in a hospital bed, his patient, and "Bear" where he talks about how her abortion caused a rift between them. Sylvia Plath and Sylvia Bloch come up often because the stories written about the two mix the theme of hospice and relationship death even more: books have been written from the perspectives of the others in their lives, how living with a suicidal woman is like being a hospice worker, you are desperate for her health and for the health of your relationship. The link posted above gives a good example of just that feeling.