Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.
Mary Shelley Frankenstein, Chapter 23 (1818)
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Frankenstein, published in 1818.
- Why
- Victor Frankenstein describes the morning after his worst loss.
What it means
Shelley names the particular pain of abrupt change: the world looks the same and means something different.
Writing through change, slowly, is one way the mind catches up with what has happened.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Frankenstein, 1818
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