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Literary notes about Disillusionment (AI summary)

Literary works employ the term disillusionment to underscore the painful shattering of idealism and the dawning of harsh realities. In some narratives, this moment of loss marks the transition from youthful optimism to a more resonant experience of life’s imperfections, as seen in the acknowledgement of youth’s triumph over later disillusionment [1]. In other instances, authors use the term to capture the bleak emotional aftermath of historical or personal upheavals, where catastrophic events stir a profound awakening to life’s uncertainties [2]. Similarly, disillusionment is rendered as a gradual unravelling of long-held dreams and expectations in domestic or relational contexts, imbuing characters with a bittersweet sense of regret and transformation [3]. Even in epic tales, the term confronts the intricacies of human emotion, blending regret, sorrow, and the inevitable maturation of spirit [4].
  1. But till I am thirty, I know that my youth will triumph over everything—every disillusionment, every disgust with life.
    — from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  2. The Great War was a progressive revelation and disillusionment.
    — from Towards the Great Peace by Ralph Adams Cram
  3. Katherine’s dream had died before she did, and the period of her marriage, short though it was, 81 must have been a time of rapid disillusionment.
    — from Lady Jane Grey and Her Times by Ida A. (Ida Ashworth) Taylor
  4. Prince Andrew looked at the laughing Speránski with astonishment, regret, and disillusionment.
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy

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