The first part (lines 1-8) are about a funeral. He is sitting at the funeral, and he sees the familiar faces of friends and relatives. The reference to filling glasses with tears is not talking about drinking glasses, but rather they are crieing and getting tears all over their eye glasses. The blank expressions show that it is a solemn event, and the guy is clearly sad by wanting to hide his sorrows. He wants to be string and hide it, but he feels very strong emotions.
The chorus, about his dreams, reveals the confusion going on in his head. He doesn't know how to feel in his time of despair.
When the song talks about children waiting for the day they're happy, I think he is talking about himself. Either he is a child, or he is comparing himself to a child waiting for his birthday. The "sit and listen" part is , in the child metaphor, about how kids are made to behave. From older person perspective, he feels like he's being told how to feel by the people around him, but really he wants to feel his own way.
I think that the lines about going to school once again bring up the child metaphor. Children literally do go to school and talk to teachers, but I think it really means that "going to school" is returning to life after the loss of a loved one. He feels awkward, and unsure of himself, and people always would offer their condolences and pity him, which actually makes him feel alienated. He doesn't want any special treatment.
"Hell teacher, tell me whats my lesson" means that he could be praying to God, or just looking for guidance in his life after he was torn apart by his sorrows. He wants God, or whoever can help him to "look right through him" and understand how he feels, because, as I said before, he feels alienated.
The sing finishes with another chorus. I find it a bit hard o interpret, but, as I said before, it reveals his confusion and mixed emotions. When the lyrics talking about running in circles, I think it could be referring to the "circle of life", but I'm really not sure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_analysis--------------------
This is an analysis of the lyrics to the song Mad World originally peformed by Tears For Fears, later covered by Gary Jules which is not only a great cover but brings out the message in a way Tears For Fears didn't.
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere
This stanza symbolizes the point of view in a grown-up perspective. We get to know the main character's daily life where nothing happens or ever changes. Same people, same places, everyone doing their best to
assess society but still not feeling satisfied with their current living situation.
Their tears are filing up their glasses
No expression, no experssion
Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
In this stanza we get to know that the main character is telling us how everyone really longs for a change but are living in an equilibrium-sort of state and therefore can't. Because of that they must hide their feelings so they fit into society, making it a very bleak world without happiness or anything to long for, therefore there is no tomorrow. The tomorrow people want doesn't exist.
And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world
In the chorus we get to know how ironical the main character feels this sort of society is in which he or she lives in. It is supposed to be a perfect society where optimal happiness is supposed to be expressed but no such happiness truly exists. In the second line we get to know that the main character strongly wants for an escape and where death seems to be the only option left. The main character finds it frustrating of how everyone are aware of this but still nothing changes as if this knowledge never existed.
Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday, happy birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen
This stanza tells about the childhood of the main character, hence the grown-up point of view in the beginning. Children are not allowed to be happy and they are longing for something which doesn't exist while being told at the same time of what they are waiting for will come true but only if they are patient enough. they are prepared to be conformed into a perfect society and should obey authority figures without hesitation and doubt.
Went to school I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher what's my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me
This stanza tells about how the main character is finally introduced to society and left out from the safeties of home. As a child he or she feels no one knows him or her because he or she is evidently different from everyone else, because of his or her retained individuality, still being able feel happiness but as time goes by, the main character feels more and more confused and oppressed and asks the only authority figure in school what he or she should do, begging for someone to take notice of him or her, but in avail, as the little indivdiuality the main character has left is slowly disappearing.
And I find it kind of funny, I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very
Mad world, mad world, enlarge your world
Mad world
This chorus does bring the same message as it did previously with the minor change that people should start to think outside the box they have been indoctrinated into doing with the addition of the phrase, "enlarge your world".
Evidently, the song in general is what happens to people living in a utilitarian society. While it is probably a song criticizing Communism as it was written in 1984 the lyrics fit to anything which tries to indoctrinate people into following a specific scheme or routine in order to become perfect citizens or if I may, believers.
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Well, here you go.
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