Hateful day when I received life!' I exclaimed in agony. 'Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust? God, in pity, made man beautiful and alluring, after his own image; but my form is a filthy type of yours, more horrid even from the very resemlance. Satan had his companions, fellow-devils, to admire and encourage him; but I am solitary and abhorred.' - Frankenstein
Interpretation
The quote reflects the deep anguish and isolation felt by the creature created by Victor Frankenstein, highlighting themes of creation and the quest for acceptance.
In this quote from Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein,' the creature grapples with feelings of abandonment and despair upon realizing that his creator views him as a monster. This profound sense of loneliness and self-loathing speaks to broader philosophical questions about existence, the nature of beauty, and the responsibilities of creation. The creature's lamentation illustrates a tragic irony: while humanity is made in the image of a divine creator, his own existence is marked by grotesqueness and rejection, leading him to feel both monstrous and isolated in a world that condemns him for his appearance.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the ethical implications of scientific discovery and creation.
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of a void, but out of chaos; the materials must in the first place be afforded; it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself.
The instructor can scarcely give sensibility where it is essentially wanting, nor talent to the unpercipient block. But he can cultivate and direct the affections of the pupil, who puts forth, as a parasite, tendrils by which to cling, not knowing to what - to a supporter or a destroyer.
What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.
I shall commit my thoughts to paper, it is true; but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling. I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me, whose eyes would reply to mine.
Heavy misfortunes have befallen us, but let us only cling closer to what remains, and transfer our love for those whom we have lost to those who yet live. Our circle will be small, but bound close by the ties of affection and mutual misfortune. And when time shall have softened your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we have been so cruelly deprived.
I could not understand why men who knew all about good and evil could hate and kill each other.
To see a man fearless in dangers, untainted with lusts, happy in adversity, composed in a tumult, and laughing at all those things which are generally either coveted or feared, all men must acknowledge that this can be from nothing else but a beam of divinity that influences a mortal body.
Those who visit foreign nations, but associate only with their own country-men, change their climate, but not their customs. They see new meridians, but the same men; and with heads as empty as their pockets, return home with traveled bodies, but untravelled minds.
We have a market-driven society so obsessed with buying and selling and obsessed with power and pleasure and property.
I'm certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes ... Money has no utility to me beyond a certain point. Its utility is entirely in building an organization and getting the resources out to the poorest in the world.
What's more condescending and corny than someone telling you how much more money they have than you and telling you basically, 'I don't care about poor people,' which is a large part of what you hear of corporate hip-hop on the radio.
Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine.
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