Literary notes about Abuse (AI summary)
In literature, the term "abuse" serves as a multifaceted device that can denote both concrete mistreatment and the broader misuse of power. Authors employ it to describe personal attacks—be they physical or emotional—as when a character launches a verbal barrage out of frustration [1, 2, 3] or endures mistreatment in intimate relationships [4, 5]. At the same time, "abuse" frequently appears in discussions of authority, encapsulating the corruption of power or the exploitation of trust, as seen when rulers are criticized for misusing their control [6, 7, 8, 9]. Moreover, the word is sometimes extended metaphorically to signal the distortion of virtues or the perversion of natural attributes [10, 11, 12], thereby underlining the inherent dangers of unchecked or senseless actions. This versatility makes "abuse" a powerful term with emotional, moral, and political dimensions across literary works [13, 14].
- At this question I could contain myself no longer, and launched a storm of abuse at her.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - I did not answer them, and they began to get angry and to abuse me.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - ow them.” “Ah! do not deceive me; I trust in you, and it would be worse than murder to abuse so simple a faith as mine.”
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - If he should beat me and abuse me, I should go on loving him.
— from Eve's Diary, Complete by Mark Twain - But if you saw how they abuse me, Helen, you would love me all the more for having ventured so much for your sake.’
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - There were no more brigands to destroy their crops and vines; and if the Sultan was absolute in his power, at least he did not abuse it.
— from The Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole - “But this is a frightful abuse of power!”
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - It may be sufficient for the historian to select two singular and salutary provisions, intended to restrain the abuse of authority.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Like the Holy Vehme, the Council of Ten compromised its authority by the abuse of power.
— from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob - It is important that you find out at once just how full and how trustworthy is your imagination, for it is capable of cultivation—as well as of abuse.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - Give them full use of such strength as they have; they will not abuse it.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - In everything you must show clearly the use before the abuse.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Were elections for the federal legislature to be annual, this practice might become a very serious abuse, particularly in the more distant States.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison - The history of womankind is a story of abuse.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein
