Top 10 Most Misunderstood Lines in Literary History
10. Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Famous Quote: “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
The United States’ most famous poet’s most famous poem is a timeless ode to the
American ideals of “individuality” and “forging your own path.” It’s one of
those poems that’s so famous, even people who hate poetry can quote it. These are the
reasons it appears on The Academy of American Poets’ list of top poems for college graduation.
Except aside from that last part, everything we just said isn’t true. Frost is actually
using an old technique known as the “unreliable narrator,” and he isn’t even being all
that subtle about it: in spite of the famous quote’s insistence that one road is “less
traveled by,” the second stanza of the poem clarifies that both roads are “worn… really
about the same.” Oh, and also, Frost himself admitted that he was actually mocking the
idea that single decisions would change your life, and specifically making fun of a friend
of his who had a tendency to over-think things that really weren’t that big a deal.
So what you thought was life-affirming was really just another poet/hipster condescendingly
saying “you think you’re an individual, when really you’re just a cog in the machine,
man!”
9. William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet
Famous Quote: “Star-Crossed Lovers”
Aww, Romeo & Juliet: two teenagers in the throes of what could possibly be the most
pure love in literary history. This is why when a magazine wants to comment on, say,
Justin Bieber’s love life or the relationship between a little boy and his horse, they’re
likely to reference the sonnet that opens Shakespeare’s most famous play by calling
them “Star-Crossed Lovers.”
And sure, this is totally appropriate, if you’re expecting these people to die. “Star-Crossed”
doesn’t mean “brought together by fate,” it means “fated to die,” because the stars
(fate) have “crossed” you. Shakespeare is intentionally reminding everyone at the
beginning of his play that this is a frickin’ tragedy, you guys, and you’re in for a miserable
ride.
8. Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland
Famous Quote: “Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love that makes the world go round.”
This is an amazingly misunderstood line from an amazingly misunderstood writer. Pretty
much everything about the life of Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson) is shrouded in
confusion and slander; rather than being about drugs, Alice in Wonderland is most likely
a criticism of then-new forms of mathematics that were becoming popular at Dodgson’s
own Oxford College. In addition, though he was commonly accused of pedophilia, The Annotated
Alice and The Carroll Myth makes the argument that Dodgson was actually asexual, and preferred
the company of children because he was extremely uncomfortable with courting and any form of
sexual innuendo.
Finally, and perhaps fittingly, his most famous quote is the one here about love making the
world go ’round, and it is directly contrary to all of his pessimistic and strictly logical
real-world values. In context, this quote is said by The Duchess, a character who is
introduced as a potential child murderer. Hardly the kind of character a writer would
want to speak the moral of his story.
Finally, need we remind you that Dodgson was a mathematician? Almost every detail of his
biography — as well as the actual context of this story — show that this idea of love
as a geo-revolutionary repellant is supposed to be scoffed at, not adored.
So it’s true that you might believe this to be true, but if that’s the case then
it’s also true that one of history’s greatest writers is making fun of you.
7. William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Famous Quote: “This above all: to thine own self be true.”
No, this is not the last time Shakespeare is appearing on this list. You can probably
guess why this line has become popular: it’s a simple platitude, and it’s attractive
because it deals with individuality (just like the Frost example). However, if you look
at who’s saying it and really analyze the content of the play, it becomes quickly obvious
that Willy Shakes is making fun of this whole concept.
As anyone who’s read Shakespeare knows, the English language has evolved quite a bit
since these plays were first performed, and what now seems like new-agey self-acceptance
actually meant something quite different in Elizabethan times: Polonius is telling his
son to work for himself, and only for himself, and to put everyone else he encounters second.
He’s not encouraging individuality, he’s encouraging selfishness.
Furthermore, Polonius spends the whole play being a complete nitwit, and even Wikipedia’s
basic description of him includes pointing out that he is “wrong in all the judgments
that he makes during the play.” In most versions, Laertes (Polonius’s son,and the
character he’s talking to) isn’t even listening — lots of stage directors will
have the character roll his eyes and scamper off quickly to avoid the avalanche of clichés
his father is dumping on him.
So what sounds like the kind of cutesy nonsense you’d roll your eyes at is really just bad
advice given by a dumb character to someone who isn’t even listening.
6. John Keats, Ode to a Grecian Urn
Famous Quote: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”
Of all the examples on this list, this is probably the most likely to be misunderstood.
After all, whether or not Keats was being serious when he said that, beauty = truth
is basically the Kirk v Picard of classic English Literature. Unlike that controversy,
there has actually emerged a begrudging consensus, and that is “that Keats did not, in fact,
believe that beauty is truth.”
The controversy boils down to whether Keats thought art was a) supposed to represent the
real world, or b) was better than the real world, with most scholars eventually deciding
that Keats believed the latter. Not only does this cast a strange shadow over the rest of
Keats’ work, which is described here as being “way over on the idealistic side of
the sliding scale of idealism versus cynicism,” but it’s also just kinda fun and quirky
that the most stereotypically pretentious comment in English Literary History was actually
a sarcastic quip.
5. William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet
Famous Quote: “Wherefore art thou, Romeo?”
“Wherefore” means “why,” as in, “why is your name Romeo?” The central conflict
of the play is that R & J can’t be together because they are members of feuding families.
Juliet isn’t asking where Romeo is — that’d be stupid. He’s standing right in front
of her.
Also, we told you Shakespeare would show up on this list again.
4. Rudyard Kipling, The Ballad of East and West
Famous Quote: “Oh East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet.”
It’s usually just the last couple lines here that are quoted, usually to describe
two things that, you know, won’t ever meet. Memorable instances are from Raising Arizona
(“There’s what’s right and there’s what’s right and never the twain shall meet,”)
and the first episode of Secret Diary of a Call Girl, if anyone cares at all about that.
The problem is that Kipling isn’t just being sarcastic here — it’s blatantly obvious
that within the context of the poem this is just a straw man argument, and only stated
at all so he can immediately point out why that statement doesn’t apply.
“Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great judgment Seat;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the ends of the earth!”
In addition to having some confusions about how capitalization works (silly nineteenth
century, amirite?), Kipling is taking the blatant stance that colonialism pretty much
rules and East and West are going to meet pretty hard despite all that physics stuff.
3. Robert Frost, Mending Wall
Famous Quote: “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Hey Robby Frost, good to see you on this list again. Privacy is the theme this time, and
while the phrase “good fences make good neighbors” is not quite so famous as some
others (though you’ve certainly heard it), Mending Wall gets launched up to number 3
on this list for one simple reason: it’s misunderstood by federal law.
“Separation of powers, a distinctively American political doctrine, profits from the advice
authored by a distinctively American poet: Good fences make good neighbors.”
That’s United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, literally creating hard law
from thin air, and not understanding the thing he’s talking about.
Mending Wall does include the line “good fences make good neighbors,” but it also
paints the character speaking that line as a bit of a twit. “Something there is that
doesn’t love a wall… (nature) sends the frozen groundswell under it.” The poem tells
a story of two neighbors with a wall between them, but every winter the wall falls apart,
so the neighbors have to meet and mend the wall, spending more time together than they
otherwise would have and growing increasingly frustrated with the each other.
Remember that the Supreme Court has nine justices, and at least one (Stephen Breyer) actually
pointed out the error in his concurring opinion, but Scalia decided to leave the mistake in
anyway.
2. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Famous Quote: …at the bottom of all these noble races the beast of prey, the splendid
blond beast, prowling about avidly in search of spoil and victory…”
We’re not going to put the whole quote up there because Nietzsche was a philosopher
and therefore pretty longwinded, but we’ve highlighted the important parts. Or rather,
we’ve highlighted the parts that the Nazis thought were important, when they were all
Nazi-ing around and committing the first ever industrialized genocide, trying to live up
to the standards that Nietzsche, apparently, set for them.
The problem is that’s not what Nietzsche meant at all. The original quote ends like
this: “the Roman, Arabian, Germanic, Japanese nobility, the Homeric heroes, the Scandinavian
Vikings — they all shared this need.” Everyone’s a blond beast because blond beasts
are a metaphor for lions.
So if you’re going to use a philosopher as the backbone of your political movement,
you might want to make sure you finish reading his sentence before you get the war machine
up and running. Also, the fact that you thought he was advocating genocide was probably a
pretty good hint that you shouldn’t have been listening to him anyway.
You stupid Nazis.
1. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
Famous Quote: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
This is definitely the most quoted line in all of English literature, so much so that
you’ve probably seen it as a parody more often that you’ve seen it written out straight
— for example, “Shall I compare thee to a bale of hay.” It’s one of the few poems
that is just so cliché that, if a guy recited it to his girlfriend on a date, even the most
love-sick of recipients would roll their eyes in disgust.
But when Shakespeare’s talking about “love,” he’s not talking about romantic love or
feminine beauty– the first 126 sonnets in Shakespeare’s work are generally understood
to be addressed towards a man, and many of the surrounding pieces are actually encouraging
procreation. Shakespeare isn’t wooing a beautiful woman; he’s telling a wealthy
young ponz exactly what he wants to hear: that he’s just so damn sexy that it’d
be pretty much the worst thing in the world if he didn’t have kids.
So if you’re a lady reading this, if any guy offers to compare you to a summer’s
day, say “no, ’cause I’m not a dude.” If you’re a guy, don’t offer to compare
your lady to a summer’s day. If you’re a man whose wife is trying to convince you
that it’s time to have kids then…uh, that’s actually fine. Nicely done.