Or I might be able to catch one, a little girl for example, and half strangle her, three quarters, until she promises to give me my stick, give me soup, empty my pots, kiss me, fondle me, smile to me, give me my hat, stay with me, follow the hearse weeping into her handkerchief, that would be nice. I am such a good man, at bottom, such a good man, how is it that nobody ever noticed it?
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- A dark, distorted fantasy of control and dependency wrapped in self-congratulation.
- In plain terms
- The speaker imagines harming someone to get care while calling themselves a good man.
- What can you take from it?
- Self-image can be deeply disconnected from actual behavior.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you judge your own goodness?
- What drives desperate fantasies?
Another view
It portrays extreme pathology that may not reflect common experience.
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