Literary notes about Cringe (AI summary)
In literature, "cringe" operates on multiple levels—as a physical reaction and as a metaphor for moral or social submission. It is often used to depict the involuntary contraction of the body under duress, as when a character suffers a relentless, almost mechanical recoil from harsh conditions ([1], [2]), while simultaneously symbolizing the degradation of agency in the face of oppressive power ([3], [4]). The word also conveys an internalized response to humiliation or revulsion, whether in moments of personal defiance against societal expectations ([5], [6]) or in the portrayal of a broader, systemic subjugation, as seen when the weak grovel beneath dominating forces ([7]). Collectively, these varied uses illustrate how "cringe" serves as a potent linguistic tool, encapsulating both physical and psychological submission, as well as the complex interplay between dignity and degradation ([8], [9]).
- It was cruel iron-hard; and hour after hour they would cringe in its grasp, alone, alone.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - He heard the hateful clank of their chains; he felt them cringe and grovel, and there rose within him a protest and a prophecy.
— from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois - "If that could happen, kings and emperors would have to cringe and crawl to me, like my hordes of serfs all over this broad land.
— from The Air Trust by George Allan England - You will have to fawn and to cringe before the tyrant whom you hate.
— from Leatherface: A Tale of Old Flanders by Orczy, Emmuska Orczy, Baroness - “Tom” blushed scarlet to see this aristocratic white youth cringe to him, a nigger, and call him “Young Marster.”
— from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain - In other words, like people in the common concerns of life, they do homage to power, and cringe under the foot that can crush them.
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft - Everywhere the weak execrate the powerful, before whom they cringe; and the powerful beat them like sheep whose wool and flesh they sell.
— from Candide by Voltaire - When Mr Carnegie rattled his millions in his pockets all England became one rapacious cringe.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw - I saw a cringe of terror run along the rank of the doomed wretches, and, wicked villains as they were, I felt sorry for them.
— from She by H. Rider Haggard
