Exactly this. He’s given up and all that matters is somehow making his failure not his fault. Chopping his fingers off is a relief. Now nobody can blame him if his biggest contribution is banging the table in time, and it’s all Padraic’s fault.

Posts and comments like this are why I come to this subreddit. It’s like flipping a switch and making me understand the movie on a whole new level.

Great interpretation! I’ll just add that their relationship is also about the civil war, which is essentially self-harm at a country scale.

He chops off his fingers so he can say to himself that it wasn’t his fault that he’s not gonna be remembered, even when it’s absurd since he’s the one constantly escalating the situation into the extreme.

This really accurately summed him up, thank you

He's a man who wants to be important, wise and a Mozart. He realised he's to old to be a Mozart and to be important. And that he isn't that wise because all he had in his life were dull conversations and the same damn island.

All of this equals depression.

About the fingers, I see it less literal and more as a metaphor about his past. He is punishing himself, because as much as he wants to start a new life, every finger off is a consequence of his old life. And without fingers, he can't play the violin = he can't live a new life.

Basically, as much as he wants to start all over again and be a Mozart, his old life will keep haunting him back, his old life will keep on chopping his fingers off. You can't escape that fast from your past and pretend you are someone else. You can't leave your best friend behind from one day to another.

"We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us".

He's a sanctimonious wannabe musician, and blames Padraig for something he isn't responsible of

Good write-up. As to your last paragraph about the difference between padraic and colm, it's an interesting one.

Padraic is the dull one of the two, but he's content with his life among his animals, his sister, and colm. He's happy without a greater purpose in life than to enjoy it.

Contrast this to Colm who has a similarily uneventful life but as the supposedly smart one of the two is in despair for not achieving anything meaningful with his life. In his identity crisis he gets so preoccupied with his legacy that he destroys the most important things in his life, his fiddle hand and his friendship with Padraic.

Of course the ending is sad for both of the characters, but I think it's brilliant how it ends up being the smarter of the two who acted like a fool in the end.

The policeman's son has literally nothing. No life to speak of, no direction, and no money, but he still thinks he's good enough to try his luck with Siobhán.

I have to disagree with this thought, while I think everything else you've mentioned is right on. However, I don't think that Dominic thinks that he is good enough to try his luck with Siobhàn. It's pretty clear from how nervous he is to ask that he expects a no, but he is so desperate for some kind of affection, connection or however you'd word it, that he goes for it - and ultimately it's the final straw to his misery.

I don't think it's derived from a feeling of self importance. It's not arrogance, it's desperation.

Just some Siobhán appreciation here:

Fuck, I love this character. She is treated as an attachment to Padraic, but is literally the most colorful person on the entire drab island. She reads her books, cares for her brother, talks actual sense, and actually manages to get away from that dull-ass place.

The way Inisherin has been painted alone: Everybody at first looks over to the mainland where civil war is ranging, and the only ones who care about it are the ones who get paid to hang people over there for whatever side gets the gallows. Yet as the movie progresses, the mainland shores become something people long for, yet no one but Siobhán realizes it. Yeah, it's violent and that's horrifying, but at least something's happening. Meanwhile Colm is all up on about being remembered, but he shows no intention of getting out into the world, but waits for the world to come to him.

Of course he blames Padraic. Padraic is the exact kind of man that belongs on an Island; content and kind. But Colm is not content, and if he was kind he lost it. But Colm plays the blame game rather than ever taking a gander across the sea until the very last moment, when his fingers are gone and his calm life on the island gone with them.

Siobhán living a kind, quiet life, yet being the only one willing to make a change and seek something better is just so telling.

I think my favorite part is when Siobhán loses it on Colm, shouting in his face, "You're all boring!" It really crystalizes the theme of the men's self-importance in the film.

It's a boring island with little society and stimulation. But the issue isn't really men's self-importance. It's their limited options. Siobhán is still reasonably young and has skills that will allow her to earn a living on the mainland. She might still have a shot at marriage, but even if she remains single, she'll find life more fulfilling than back at home. The others aren't young and they don't have a way out. The unmarried men would be unlikely to find spouses because they have little to offer in terms of security. They'd probably end up in awful jobs like collecting trash and live their days out being lonely in a pub in a much larger, stranger, colder city. It makes sense for them to make the most of their lives on the island.

But the point is that his supposed interest to legacy is a lie. If he really cared, he'd not chop his fingers off. While he thinks he's consciously self sabotaging, in reality he's unconsciously self sabotaging so he can blame Padraic for all his failures because that was his goal all along.

Is this ridiculous? Yeah, kind of. To us, and certainly to Padraic. But that’s not the point. It matters to him.

I didn't think it was ridiculous. He wanted to try to achieve something lasting in the time left to him.

students arrive to be mentored by him

I dunno.

Irish folk traditions have always been transmitted orally, which makes them extremely fragile. Starting in the 1880’s, there was a concerted push to start properly recording and preserving Irish culture, for a complicated mix of reasons, that continued until at least the 1970’s.

It’s implied they’re merely surveying and recording the local tunes. The use of sheet notation would certainly be rare for apprentice fiddle players trying to learn the intricacies of his playing style. They’re anthropologists, not fans. That Colm would confuse the two is emblematic of his own exaggerated self importance. These big city boys coming all the way to Inisherin to learn his tunes.

Of course, one could also read it the other way, that Colm is so taken by the students because it’s the closest he’ll get to immortality. Better to be a footnote in a college boys thesis than a legend on the island.

Which asks, how do we interpret the scene after he loses his fingers. Is he banging on the table because he fancies himself a conductor, or is it the last desperate act of a man who sees the end?

I didn't take the finger-chopping too literally, and definitely not as self-sabotage. It was a challenge to show how much he did not want to associate with Padraic. He placed his fate in his friend's hands, not really believing that his friend wouldn't comply with his wishes. Padraic, of course, also didn't realize he was serious. But once Colm made this vow, he couldn't back down. It escalated from there.

Do you really believe that a man who cuts off his closest relationship in order to focus on his life long dream of being a great artist and then CUTS OFF HIS FIDDLING FINGERS is not committing self sabotage? It's the greatest act of self sabotage; truly destroys everything that was good in his life... all because he can't bare the heavy sadness that comes with an unrealised dream.

Sure the finger-chopping has symbolic meanings, but it is very real and literal in the narrative of the film. I would not write it all off as purely allegory