Literary notes about Compelled (AI summary)
Writers often use "compelled" to express a force that overpowers personal choice—whether that force is external circumstances, societal expectations, or inner necessity. In philosophical texts, it can describe an unyielding influence from nature or law that limits freedom ([1], [2], [3]), while in narratives and memoirs the term may underscore a character’s reluctant submission to unavoidable conditions, as when natural needs or harsh realities leave little room for alternative actions ([4], [5], [6]). In historical accounts and political treatises, "compelled" highlights moments when authority or duty forces an individual or group to act against their will ([7], [8], [9]). This varied deployment across genres deepens the interplay between determinism and free will, marking the moments when human agency is overtaken by circumstances beyond control ([10], [11]).
- Then he can hardly be compelled by external influence to take many shapes?
— from The Republic by Plato - Athenian law compelled a man who had wounded another to go into exile; if he returned, he was to be put to death (Telfy).
— from Laws by Plato - Youth are no longer compelled to commit to memory many thousand lyric and tragic Greek verses; yet, perhaps, a worse fate is in store for them.
— from Laws by Plato - On this occasion natural wants compelled a temporary withdrawal to relieve our distended bladders.
— from The Romance of Lust: A classic Victorian erotic novel by Anonymous - We had arrived early in the afternoon, and had I not been compelled to take on the tired horses for the remaining four farsakhs (13 miles)
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The life she was compelled to lead drove her mad.
— from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet A. Jacobs - He was compelled to do both; and the great ecclesiarch poorly excuses his submission to the emperor, (p. 290—292.)]
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Thus they compelled him to accept the office, and with one of his colleagues, Lucius Furius, at once to lead an army against the enemy.
— from Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4) by Plutarch - In his second expedition, he compelled the Chinese emperor to retire beyond the yellow river to a more southern residence.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - “It is I, dearest and best friend, who have been compelled to abandon you, but do not let your grief be increased by any thought of my sorrow.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - His beauty and grace compelled love at once.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
