It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the limitations and lack of agency in being a doll, symbolizing those who exist to be shaped by others rather than taking action themselves.
Rumer Godden's quote highlights the vulnerability and helplessness of dolls, which serve as a metaphor for individuals who lack control over their own lives. It suggests that to be chosen rather than to choose can be a source of anxiety and danger, emphasizing the importance of agency and the power to take action in one's own life.
In practice
During a motivational speech about personal growth and overcoming adversity, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of making choices in life.
A writer who has never explored words, who has never searched, seeded, sieved, sifted through his knowledge and memory...dictiona ries, thesaurus, poems, favorite paragraphs, to find the right word, is like someone owning a gold mine who has never mined it.
Human beings are never to be treated as a means but always as ends.
Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.
I'm no model lady. A model's just an imitation of the real thing.
There are only three possible endings -aren't there? - to any story: revenge, tragedy or forgiveness. That's it. All stories end like that.
Sweet Memory! wafted by thy gentle gale, Oft up the stream of Time I turn my sail.
Not how the world is, but that it is, is the mystery.
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