I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel.
Interpretation
The speaker feels they should embody the ideal but instead reflects a flawed or rejected version of it.
In this quote, the speaker expresses a deep sense of identity conflict, likening themselves to Adam, the first man, representing an ideal or original state. However, they identify more closely with the fallen angel, symbolizing a departure from purity and perfection, reflecting feelings of inadequacy or loss in the face of societal expectations or personal struggles.
In practice
In a speech on personal growth, one might say, 'As Mary Shelley put it, I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel,' to highlight transformation.
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.
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
Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.
A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.
But her brain was not interested in the future. Loaded with the past and hungry for more, it left her no room to imagine, let alone plan for, the next day.
Old age comes on suddenly, and not gradually as is thought.
The knowledge of the cross brings a conflict of interest between God who has become man and man who wishes to become God.
For those who have obtained unobstructed knowledge of Self, the world is seen merely as a bondage causing imagination.
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