Literary notes about Dimly (AI summary)
The word "dimly" in literature often conveys an interplay between literal scant light and metaphorical vagueness or uncertainty. In many works, authors use it to describe physical settings where light is sparse and details remain elusive, as in Washington Irving’s depiction of dust-darkened windows [1, 2, 3] and Jules Verne’s portrayal of distant or barely discernible forms [4, 5, 6]. At the same time, "dimly" frequently characterizes internal perceptions, suggesting that understanding or realization comes slowly and incompletely, as seen in the reflective moments of characters in texts by Kate Chopin [7, 8] and Oscar Wilde [9, 10]. By using "dimly" in this dual capacity, writers create atmospheres charged with both physical gloom and the muted stirrings of insight, inviting readers to sense the boundaries between what is visible and what remains just out of clear reach.
- The light struggles dimly through windows darkened by dust.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond.
— from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - "Oh, yes, I can dimly see a sort of tunnel, which turns off obliquely to the right.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - Coast still dimly visible about thirty leagues to leeward.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - At a distance of about twelve miles, Cape St. Vincent was dimly to be seen, forming the south-western point of the Spanish peninsula.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - Amid the blur of green, and dimly, she saw familiar faces and heard voices as if they came from far across the fields, and Edmond was holding her.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - A certain light was beginning to dawn dimly within her,—the light which, showing the way, forbids it.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - Things that he had dimly dreamed of were suddenly made real to him.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - He was dimly conscious that entirely fresh impulses were at work within him, and they seemed to him to have come really from himself.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
