Let's Parse the Ugly Duchess.

[earthen_sorrow]

Read the title and you can already tell how bored I am.

Anyway, The Duchess, a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland gave Alice this confusing statement.

“Never imagine yourself to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that you were, or might have been, if it was not otherwise than what you had been

Comments

[im_sorrysorry]

hahaha :)) rj!
that thing again!

hrrrm. from your reduced sentence:

Imagine yourself as what you are not because what you should have been or what you are not is what you are now.

i think it just says that you are what you aren't.

[earthen_sorrow]

i think it just says that you are what you aren't.

It still sounds weird. I wonder if there a clear meaning behind the raw quote. :/

[rosseau]

Starting from the original statement:

Never imagine yourself to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that you were, or might have been, if it was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise

simplified to
1st part: don't think yourself to not be what others think you are or would be
2nd part: if, it was not different than what others perceive you not to be.

further simplified to:
1st part: don't perceive yourself different from others' perceptions of you
2nd part: if it is the same as how others perceive you not to be

even further simplication and joining:
Don't perceive yourself different from others' perceptions of you if it is the different from how others perceive you.

Meaning of the statement: (since second statement is the same as the first statement)
Don't think that the "you" other people see is really different from who you really are.

Simplest Terms:
You are who people think you are.

:-)

[earthen_sorrow]

So this is what it means. >_<

Too many negations. *headache*

Poor Alice. The Duchess didn't even say it again for her.

[earthen_sorrow]

But look...My interpretation and your interpretation are similar in this way:

Imagine yourself as what you are not because what you should have been or what you are not is what you are now.

"What you are not" can possibly be what other people think of you. So it also says that what you are not or the possibility that what other people think of you, which you are not, is what you are. xD *headache*

[rosseau]

yeah, i agree.

go verbal gymnastics!!!

[starlight_19]

Didn't Gerry already solved that one way back then? :/

[earthen_sorrow]

I forgot. :B