Literary notes about AWESTRUCK (AI summary)
In literature, "awestruck" is employed as a striking descriptor that conveys a character’s sudden encounter with beauty, mystery, or a force beyond ordinary comprehension. Authors use it to illustrate both internal emotional turmoil and external reactions—whether silently absorbing a sublime scene or speaking in a voice imbued with reverence or disbelief. In one instance, the word underscores a reflective internal calm amidst regret [1], while in another it colors a character’s fascination with magical beauty [2]. Its application extends to scenes where the overwhelming presence of nature or an extraordinary spectacle leaves onlookers silently humbled [3] or nearly in a state of divine rapture [4]. This versatile term thus enriches narratives by underscoring moments when human response is marked by profound admiration and wonder.
- He said to himself, as millions of men and women have said to themselves, with awestruck calm: "My marriage was a mistake."
— from These Twain by Arnold Bennett - “Isn’t she a beauty!” said Patty, in a voice almost awestruck, for the moonlight touched up the car with a sort of magic lustre never seen by day.
— from Patty's Motor Car by Carolyn Wells - There was that in the room as we entered which was stronger than us all, and made us shrink into solemn awestruck helplessness.
— from Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - "Like a mighty thunder these last words came to us, and we all were trembling and awestruck as if we had seen a vision of old.
— from The International Jew : The World's Foremost Problem by Anonymous
