Literary notes about Capitulate (AI summary)
Capitulate is employed in literature to evoke the notion of yielding or surrendering, whether in the context of military defeat or personal capitulation to emotion or circumstance. In historical narratives, it describes the inevitable submission of commanders or cities facing insurmountable forces, as when a Hungarian commandant yielded to a Turkish garrison [1] or a king succumbed before 40,000 Prussians [2]. At the same time, the term is used figuratively to portray moments of internal concession, such as a character accepting the need to surrender to destiny or love [3] or a person reluctantly accepting an unalterable change in circumstance [4]. In all instances, capitulate captures a profound transition from resistance to acceptance, highlighting both the strategic and emotional dimensions of surrender.
- The place, nevertheless, passed under Turkish rule in 1596, its Hungarian commandant having been compelled by the foreign garrison to capitulate.
— from The story of Hungary by Ármin Vámbéry - But victory was of little avail; surrounded by 40,000 Prussians, the king was forced to capitulate.
— from Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4 by Wolfgang Menzel - She lent herself to her lovers, but her eyes made it plain that she still sought the perfect one to whom she would some day capitulate.
— from Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo by Juliette Drouet and Louis Guimbaud - She recognised that she would have to capitulate, and had a happy moment in assuring herself that she would make her own terms.
— from Lucian the dreamer by J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
