What does The End mean?

My Chemical Romance: The End Meaning

Album cover for The End album cover
Get "The End" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

The End Lyrics

Now come one, come all to this tragic affair
Wipe off that makeup
What's in is despair
So throw on the black dress
Mix in with the lot
You might wake up and notice you're someone you're not

If you look in the mirror and don't like what...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Jun 8th 2012 !⃝

    I agree with everyone's interpretations. I mean I see where everyone is coming from.
    I think this is about realizing that you've been living a lie, you're realizing your something your not.
    "you might wake up and notice you're someone you're not"
    and realize that the someone you've been trying to be "the someone you're not" isn't someone that you actually want to be(<-If that makes any sense.)
    "if you look in them mirror and don't like what you see, you can find out firsthand what its like to be me."
    So now you're going to stop living a lie. You're going to stop being someone you're not. You basically going to get rid of the person you've been trying to be. You're going to kill that person. The lie that you've been living. But its not a sad thing. Because that person you've been trying to be, is someone you're not. So its a good thing.
    "so gather round piggies and kiss this goodbye, I'd encourage your smiles, I'll expect you won't cry"
    So in conclusion it's about realizing that you're living a lie, you're trying to be someone or something you're not. So now that you've realized this, you're going to stop being someone you're not(because you don't like this person you've been trying to be), and now you're going to just be you.

    “Sometimes you have to kind of die inside in order to rise from your own ashes and believe in yourself and love yourself to become a new person.”
    ^^those aren't lyrics to the song its this Gerard Way quote. I think it kind of summarizes what I've been trying to say.
    Anyways, just sharing my opinion. You don't have to agree with me.

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Feb 27th 2015 !⃝

    I see this song having two meanings, in a way.
    Firstly, there is the printed meaning. It shows the death of The Patient and his feelings towards his funeral and people's reactions- 'I'd expect you won't cry.'

    However, I see another vein running through the song- being transgender. As a trans guy myself, some of the lyrics in this song see extremely reminiscent of my own experience. 'You might wake up and notice you're someone you're not' is the moment when everything clicks, and you realise who you are and suddenly your body is even more of a stranger now you know yourself. Then 'If you look in the mirror and don't like what you see/You can find out firsthand what it's like to be me' is another really hard-hitting one. It's gender dysphoria, the feeling of your body being not you. It sums up the daily looking in the mirror and not seeing who you are but instead a distorted figure. 'Here's my resignation, I'll serve it in drag' to me represents acting as the gender you were assigned at birth when you know you're not, comparable to drag as it is acting as another gender from your own. Finally, the reoccurring 'Save me's' are a cry for help, getting the hell out of the prison your body is.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 7th 2007 !⃝

    This is song is clearly saying that you should realise that the makeup and the clothes that you were doesn't make you who you are. You should simply be your self and stop trying to be someone you're not the say "gather around piggys and kiss this good bye" they are referring to us, their listeners and saying that we should realise that they are changing they are no longer going to be who they were but are sinmply changing for the best they say that if we put on akeup and were black then you may think that you are your own person "an individual" but you are simply mixing in with the crowd around you. Now that the emo style has become popular it is more relevant then ever but I think the song then goes on to introducing the Patient and beginning this magnificent album .. but I must say that MCR's changes that they have made may be for the best in their opinion but I will always love their classics like "vampires will never hrt you" "head first for Halos" and "Our lady of sorrows" but still I will follow CR wherever they go there genre doesn't matter just their simplicity of talent and skill to shine no matter were they are on the charts they will always be at that top of my heart <3

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 23rd 2019 !⃝

    Okay, so I think this song is about "The Patient's" death.
    In the first verse, I think it is about the family members of "The Patient" going to his funeral. It also has more meaning. "Wipe off that makeup..." probably means that you don't need makeup for everything, and that makeup brings constant despair to the person using it. The "Throw on the black dress..." is VERY obvious. People go to funerals wearing black. "You might wake up..." means that when you pass away, you will "wake up" to see that you're not the solid form you used to be, but something....different.
    The second verse is about cancer, and when "you look in the mirror..." is that the people with cancer don't like what they see because of their hair loss and droopy appearance. "So gather 'round piggies....I'd encourage...." means that all "The Patient's" living family members gather around his grave, and while he's in Hell and in the Black Parade, he doesn't want them to cry, because he knows they don't know what he has done in the past, and he doesn't care that he's dead.
    The third verse is about "The Patient's" bruises he got from cancer and that he signed his resignation, and that he'll "serve it in drag" because, welp, he doesn't give a frick about it. The "penitence ball" is obviously his funeral, and that they have "front seats" to watch his coffin get buried and such. I think the "When I grow up...." means that from WTTBP. His father kept on pleading him to be a good person when he grows up, but "The Patient", again, doesn't give a frick.
    "Save me! Get me the Hell outta here!" means that he wants to be saved by cancer, and he thinks the hospital is Hell. He then pleads that he is "too young to die", and then someone ("The Patient's" Lover) tells him in heaven, that he can't be saved. But of course, "The Patient's" still pleads to be saved and that he wants to be whisked away to heaven with his "lover", but of course, he goes to Hell and the Black Parade.

    This is just a theory! This could be entirely wrong!

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 10th 2013 !⃝

    Before we look at this particular song, we have to look at the album as a whole. The album is about "the patient" dying and then looking back on memories of his life.
    With that in mind, this is "the patient" on his death bed, waiting for death to come over him. Based on other lines from other songs("did you get what you deserve: the ending of your life" from Dead!
    "No one ever had much nice to say, I think he never liked you anyway" also from Dead!
    "Without you is how I disappear and live my life alone forever now" from This is How I Disappear
    "I don't love you like I did yesterday" from I Don't Love You) I have deduced that he was murdered by his ex girlfriend.

  6. anonymous
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    Jun 1st 2012 !⃝

    I think that Gerard tells his fans to stop trying to be like him - with all the makeup and all - and be themselves.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
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    May 11th 2011 !⃝

    This song is an intro to the patient. It shows he is ready to die but he also doesn't want to so he has mixed feelings. It shows how hard his life was and it explains his situation.

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 1st 2011 !⃝

    Obviously asking everyone to come and listen. "This tragic affair" is the death of someone. I try to myself in the place of people in the song so I assume he's talking to me specifically and that the dead person is the old me(If you do it you'll get what I mean). "Wipe off that make up" refers to all you people out there trying to fit in. He means for you to stop trying cause your never going to. "So throw on that black dress" means to be yourself and "mix in" the people ("the lot") who are enjoying life. "You might wake up to notice you're something you're not" means just that. After wiping away all that make up and trying to live up to other people's standards you'll have a taste of what life really is and realize that you used to be "something your not."

    "If you look in the mirror and don't like what you see
    You can find out firsthand what it's like to be me
    So gather 'round piggies and kiss this goodbye
    I'd encourage your smiles
    I'll expect you won't cry"

    "If you look in the mirror and don't like what you see" at any point. Try looking at someone else's life (like Gerard.) He was picked on throughout high school, developed a drinking/drug problem, 1st hand witness of 9/11, multiple depressions, eventually becoming suicidal, and then having to recover from it all. Unless you're family got killed before your eyes, you have no right to complain cause what ever you're going through can get a lot worse. He asks you to look at your life compared to his and be thankful you're not him cause he's about to tell you about all the shit he's been through. And when he tells you he "expects you won't cry" but that you'll smile. He doesn't want you to feel bad for him. He wants you to feel happy for yourself.

    (the following paragraph is not well thought out)
    After another resignation has put him in his funeral jag he says he'll serve his resignation in drag. I think that means to go in a bang. "Penitence ball" as in juvy. I don't know where he's going with that exactly, but I think it means people are gonna treat you like you belong in jail. "When I grow up I want to be nothing at all" is probably supposed to be interpreted differently by different people.

    The last part means to help him "get the hell out of his life". Most of The Black Parade is about stuff that the band experienced. And if he's too young to die then you sure as hell can't die now.

    STOP LUMPING THIS SONG WITH "DEAD!" If MCR meant for them to be the same song then they would have made them the same song.

  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 1st 2011 !⃝

    Well, it's been made clear that the album is about the life and death of 'the patient,' a young man who dies of cancer.

    I feel like the most obvious meaning of 'The End' is that is symbolizes his death specifically. It's the first song, as you all know, and it begins with the ticking a respirator, which means that he is still alive. But at the end and the transmission to the next song, we hear the beep of the machine signalizing his stopped heart and ultimately, his death. He is lying at his deathbed at the time of this song, and he realizes that his final moment has arrived. Hence the lyrics "Now come one come all to this tragic affair."

    The lines "Wipe off that makeup - What's in is despair. So throw on that black dress - Mix in with the lot.." feels to me like it's too late for pretenses, it's over, now you got to face what you are and what you've been. It's the moment of truth. "Mix in with the lot" can be a way of saying that he will just be a part of the dead now, he'll be walking in the parade of the lost souls.

    "Another contusion, my funeral jag. Here's my resignation, I'll serve it in drag. When I grow up I want to be nothing at all!" I interpret from this that he is leaving all the pretenses behind, that he's finally being whatever he wants to be without caring, as he might as well go in drag for all he cares. And maybe that no one on earth truly knew him.

    I think there's underlying references to My Chemical Romance, and maybe even the fans, too, as mentioned before here. It's telling everyone as well as themselves to be who you are and live the most while you got the chance.

  10. MCR
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    Apr 25th 2010 !⃝

    ‘The End’ This tells the story of the patients pain of living, he is singing about the funeral he plans, as he wants no one to be sad about his passing, as his story continues through the album.

  11. anonymous
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    Apr 9th 2010 !⃝

    The song is basically introducing you to the whole story of the cancer patient. That's why is the first track.

  12. anonymous
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    Jan 31st 2010 !⃝

    I think the part that goes : "I'd encourage your smiles/I'll expect you won't cry!" means that he doesn't want people to feel bad about him dying

  13. emolove27
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    Jul 24th 2009 !⃝

    I could be wrong here but I always thought of this song as him writing about his own funeral. Like, imaging his own funeral or something.

  14. anonymous
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    Jun 3rd 2009 !⃝

    I think the black parade album is like a flashback of the patients life like how some movies show you the end first and then the ret of the movie is showing you how they got to the end I think that's how this is it starts with his funeral and the rewinds to the beginning to me the whole song seems written in a sarcastic and resentful tone especially the first two stanzas I also think he is mocking how the people at his funeral are behaving- digging out a wrinkled black dress piling on the makeup crying fake tears ("I'd encourage your smiles I'll expect you won't cry")and talking about the hardships of their own lives("if you look in the mirror and don't like what you see you can find out first hand what its like to be me") forgetting all about him and the reason they where there in the first place

  15. BristolCTgirl
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    Jul 6th 2008 !⃝

    It's all the fears someone has before getting married and committed. If you marry me will you bury me..will you stay with me forever? But along with that are a host of fears and he's just running down the list.

  16. anonymous
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    May 6th 2008 !⃝

    I think this song is about gerard telling everybody to stop pretending to be someone they're not... maybe a reflection of the patient on his life? hmm... well, I really think it's still about the patient... after looking back in his life, he think he's done somethings he shouldn't have.. like being someone his not... Then he's giving a message to people.. .

    "wipe of that make-up, what's in it's dispair.."
    the mask you try to put on everyday to hide the real you is useless... coz deep inside, you feel dead about it...

    "I encourage ya'll smiles, I expect you won't cry"
    i'm kinda not sure about this part... but I guess it's about people smiling like they mean it.... but they're really hurting inside...


    "when I grow up, I want to be nothing at all"
    guess it's about the guy having no clue on what to do with his life...



    it's still about the patient right?? and the song is his reflection on his life...


    ~misunderstood01~

  17. anonymous
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    Mar 30th 2008 !⃝

    I thought this song was about how nobody really cared that he died or is dieing, they just want his things "so gather round' piggies and kiss this good-bye, i'd encourage your smiles and expect you won't cry."

  18. Julz
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    Mar 4th 2008 !⃝

    Ok fine, I agree that this song is about a patient dying AND the new beginning of MCR. However, I don't necessarily agree that MCR is trying to change their fans.. They are always saying how we must be ourselves and be who we want to be. And most people, like me won't just change automatically because a band says we should. And I didn't become 'emo' because of MCR. They are just a band that I really love and listen to. So this is my opinion...
    And... I love MCR forever!

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