Literary notes about Conscious (AI summary)
In literature, the term "conscious" is employed to denote a wide range of self-awareness and recognition, from the moral realization of wrongdoing to acute sensitivity toward one’s internal and external surroundings. It is often used in narratives to highlight characters’ introspection about their feelings and actions, such as feeling shame or regret for past deeds ([1], [2]), or recognizing subtle changes in their emotional states and interpersonal relationships ([3], [4]). Authors also deploy the term to contrast a heightened state of alertness with moments of unwitting detachment, capturing both physical sensations and deeper psychological experiences ([5], [6]). In doing so, "conscious" emerges as a versatile descriptor that encapsulates not just reflective thought but also the immediate, lived experience of being.
- To be conscious of having done wrong, to turn pale at the thought of the crime.
— from The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer - It will be much difference, mark me, whether she dies conscious or in her sleep.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - Then again she was conscious of another change which also made her tremulous; it was a sudden strange yearning of heart towards Will Ladislaw.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - But meanwhile, conscious of his strength, he seemed to be diverting himself.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an irresistible drowsiness; and, further, of being in his own bedroom.
— from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - But | let him once find himself CONSCIOUS of any of the actions of Nestor, he then finds himself the same person with Nestor. ...
— from Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking by William James
