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.
Life is rather a state of embryo, a preparation for life; a man is not completely born till he has passed through death.
Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.
And the end of the fight is tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, and the epitaph drear, "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."
The opinion of the world does not affect me. I have placed as the real values in my life what follows when I am dead.
In practical life we are compelled to follow what is most probable ; in speculative thought we are compelled to follow truth.
One way to define spiritual life is getting so tired and fed up with yourself you go on to something better, which is following Jesus.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.