What does Torn mean?

Natalie Imbruglia: Torn Meaning

Album cover for Torn album cover

Torn Lyrics

I thought I saw a man brought to life
He was warm, he came around like he was dignified
He showed me what it was to cry
Well you couldnt be that man I adored
You dont seem to know, dont seem to care what your heart is for
But I dont know him...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Jun 14th 2009 !⃝

    She fell in love with a man that was everything she wanted, he was absolutely perfect...but that is the illusion. She then saw him for who he really was after he hurt her (however it was that he hurt her...maybe he lied to her, cheated on her, or just up and left her). He wasn't the person she thought he was but by the time she realized it her heart was already broken. The damage was already done, her perfect world is no longer perfect and she is now "torn". She feels like an idiot for actually believing the illusion was real. Now, she has no faith in true love anymore, doesn't think it exists because she found exactly what she wanted in a man, just to find it all an illusion..it wasn't even real. Now every man who comes into her life is "too late" because her heart or her soul...or maybe both are broken and she will never be able to love the same way again.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    DeeD
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    Apr 22nd 2011 !⃝

    This was my song when I was with my now ex husband who I adored. Describes how I felt when he went cold on me, the humiliation and disappointment that left me - torn. He was much younger. Tall, dark and handsome. Dignified. Reserved. Charming. Fascinating. I thought we were close and married him. The very next day I realised too late his reserve was distance, his dignity just self centredness. His ambitions left little time for me. After many years of loving him from afar, as his wife, I made the first move. He barely noticed. I lay there, naked and ashamed. Exposed. His response when it came was too late. I was already looking past him, at the sky beyond, wondering if life and love held more than such indifference and disappointment. And yes, I was torn. Between staying and going. I wanted to respond, to touch him again, but it was too late. I could not feel his touch because I could no longer recognise his love, only my own. So I was torn. I wanted to go but could not bear to leave him, to never see him again. But how could I stay? Now I could not respond. It was too late. But staying was such agony. I was torn. Between love, inner peace, self respect. After more than twenty years of being torn... I was dumped. Replaced by a girl half my age who was pregnant. Now 30 years after our wedding and five after our divorce, every night in my dreams I feel the coldness when I lay there, naked and ashamed. And torn. Though I am now 60 and happy and content with my new love of seven years snoring gently with me in his arms. I was torn.... True story.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    May 21st 2011 !⃝

    I think that the first paragraph talks about a girl who found her ideal guy and fell in love with him.

    The second paragraph and most of the lyrics talk about her realization that the "ideal guy" she fell in love with isn't so ideal after all. He turned out to be a lie. And this realization made her feel so "torn."

    She didn't necessarily lose her virginity, though. The chorus could be a figurative explanation of how vulnerable she is to emotional pain and how embarrassed she felt for loving a man who doesn't deserve to be loved.

  4. JoeDirt
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    Jan 5th 2023 !⃝

    This is a song about what I put my second wife through alone. We had both just gotten out of abusive relationships recently, hers physical and mine emotional. Neither of us wanted a relationship and never really "dated". We met in a bar and she was there because she was ready to move on from the past, I was there because the roads for me to get home were closed by a snowstorm. Once we started talking we didn't stop until 5 hours later. She invited me to stay at her place in a spare bedroom and for the next 2 months I spent Friday and Saturday nights at her place. We never got physical because I didn't want a relationship because I wasn't ready. It drove her nuts that I wouldn't allow anything to happen and the first time I realized she had feelings for me and I had feelings for her, I wanted to bolt. But she played it cool, like it wasn't her intention and I stuck around and when I came back the next weekend she sprung her trap on me and I let go and fell right into love with her.

    We got married 3 months later and within a couple of months both our pasts came back to haunt us and we agreed it was best we take a break and figure ourselves out before we wrecked any possibility of a future. It was always my intent to go back but not until I was ready. When I finally got to that point I called her to tell her I was coming home and her mom told me she was gone and so was our son. I never knew she was pregnant, if I had I would have stayed with her and worked through our problems together. The short of it is, what she saw in me was really me but I wasn't ready to live up to what she saw in me and when I was it was too late to do anything about it.

  5. anonymous
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    Dec 16th 2022 !⃝

    I think she was in love with someone who's changed. She can't even talk to him anymore because he's so shut down to her. She meets someone else who could be all that he's not during this period that a wedge has grown between her and her emotionally distant partner. This is why she's torn. Between mourning the loss of the relationship and what could have been with what could be.

  6. anonymous
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    May 19th 2021 !⃝

    I believe the song is about her dealing with memories of a past rape or abuse and then meeting a guy who reminds her of all that's going on. After the conversation has run dry she cannot move on from the abuse that has been triggered somehow and now she is metaphorically torn and naked emotionally on the floor. He's a little late (jokingly) she's already torn or abused already. Can't help me....

    This song has special meaning to me since I was abused as a child and understand how difficult it is to continue into adulthood with such a heavy burden. Relationships always are looked at through the lense of abuse. Distorted and shameful. Torn.

  7. anonymous
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    Mar 16th 2021 !⃝

    Think the song is from a man's point of view.I thort I saw a girl brought to life she was warm she came around she was dignified.she showed me what it was to cry.But U couldn't be the girl I adored .....

  8. anonymous
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    Jun 2nd 2019 !⃝

    Most definitely about a girl being raped by someone she knew and adored.

  9. anonymous
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    Apr 13th 2018 !⃝

    It is about the Adam/Eve dream. She thought she could be a good, dignified person in a world ruled by the serpent, and not living as her real spiritual self. She realizes that the fruits of trying to live separated from God-feeling cold, naked, ashamed, bound by the body and broken--and is tired of living in the illusion--has in fact lost faith in finding her identity in the illusion. She doesn't miss this dream of life and is now wide awake to the serpent's lies and knows that illusion never turned into anything real or happy as much as she tried and in fact made her feel awful about herself.

  10. anonymous
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    Jan 8th 2018 !⃝

    Pretty well sums it up for me.
    Although being a guy,it still has the same meaning..just the gender roles are reversed.
    The emotional sponge (guy)
    Marrys the emotional brick (girl)
    Does his head in trying to help and nurture her to see her full potential.
    He overlooked the small detail of reality..
    Finally sees that the brick is not who he thought...has his heart TORN then gets taken out in the final scene

  11. anonymous
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    Aug 1st 2017 !⃝

    I saw an interview of her.. she said the song is about an abortion.

  12. anonymous
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    Sep 9th 2016 !⃝

    Guy acted outrageously for whether for alcoholic or other reasons verbally and/or physically,then fell asleep and woke up and only then started to act all dignified, but its now done and a little late

  13. anonymous
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    Jul 21st 2016 !⃝

    It is a about a girl who was fooled by a phony guy. He just wanted to use her and then leave as most people do. He wasn't man enough.

  14. anonymous
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    Apr 9th 2016 !⃝

    It is the lament of Eve. It is laced with allegory. She is even wearing a t-shirt with a serpent on it in the video. The offer in Eden was of something that promised to make her complete. But left her naked and ashamed. The illusion didn't become real. The perfect sky is torn. There is so many things she can't touch is a play on the Law of Moses. Law is yet another replacement for God Himself. A person with the indwelling Holy Spirit needs no Law. Eve had lost the indwelling Holy Spirit, which engaged in internal dialogue with her. The conversation has run dry. The indwelling Spirit of God is no longer where it used to lie.

  15. anonymous
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    Jun 5th 2015 !⃝

    I think this song is about domestic violence.

  16. anonymous
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    Sep 13th 2014 !⃝

    Torn has a double meaning... 1) hurt 2) undecided about what to do

  17. anonymous
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    Apr 8th 2013 !⃝

    It's about how she use to see Jesus Christ in a good way I.e. "I thought I saw a man brought to life"& how she's no longer influenced or motivated by anything of or about him, again I.e. "should of seen just what was there, & not just some holy light." She's torn because she thought Jesus was good & Lucifer was bad but something made her see it the other way, the ass backwards way HOLLYWOOD makes everyone think, remember only the blood of Jesus Christ can save us of our sins, plead it upon u to be saved as this world can do nothing to save u after this life is over.

  18. anonymous
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    Feb 1st 2013 !⃝

    It is about a girl who thought she has found true love with a perfect man gives her virginity to her. As soon as she does he leaves her. She is now saying that she can not love anyone else or be able to open up emotionally and physicaly anymore now that she knows what people are capable of.

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