Death Quote by Djuna Barnes
““The woman who presents herself to the spectator as a 'picture' forever arranged, is, for the contemplative mind, the chiefest danger. Sometimes one meets a woman who is beast turning human. Such a person's every movement will reduce to an image of a forgotten experience; a mirage of an eternal wedding cast on the racial memory; as insupportable a joy as would be the vision of an eland coming down an aisle of trees, chapleted with orange blossoms and bridal veil, a hoof raised in the economy of fear,stepping in the trepidation of flesh that will become myth; as the unicorn is neither man nor beast deprived, but human hunger pressing its breast to its prey. Such a woman is the infected carrier of the past; before her the structure of our head and jaws ache -- we feel that we could eat her, she who is eaten death returning, for only then do we put our face close to the blood on the lips of our forefathers.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, 1936
The quote warns that idealizing a woman as a static image turns her into a dangerous, mythic object that erodes authentic perception and humanity.
In simple terms: Seeing a woman as a picture dehumanizes her and threatens true understanding.
Key Takeaway
Recognize people as complex, not as idealized images.
Themes
objectification
myth
humanity
perception
danger
Mood
critical
reflective
uneasy
Type
philosophical
literary
When to use this quote
- art criticism
- relationship dynamics
- gender studies
- psychological introspection
- literary analysis
Key Concepts
existentialism
feminist critique
psychoanalysis
Questions to Reflect On
- How does idealizing others affect our relationships?
- What does it mean to see someone as a myth?
A Different Perspective
Such idealization can lead to loss of empathy and distorted reality.
