Literary notes about Disparity (AI summary)
Writers often deploy the word "disparity" to underscore profound contrasts between elements in their narratives. It is used to highlight differences not only in quantifiable measures—such as age ([1]), numbers ([2], [3], [4]), or resources ([5])—but also in qualitative aspects like the contrast between external appearance and inner disposition ([6]) or between one’s actions and words ([7]). In the realm of social and personal commentary, disparity frequently reveals the misalignment between expectations and reality, as in discussions of unsuitable marriage matches ([8], [9], [10]) or the divergent fortunes of different groups. This layered usage allows authors to evoke complex tensions that enrich their characterizations and broader thematic explorations.
- There was a disparity in their ages—some twelve years.
— from The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens - Despite the great disparity of numbers it must be a fight to the death between Texas and Mexico.
— from The Texan Scouts: A Story of the Alamo and Goliad by Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander) Altsheler - Denísov had two hundred, and Dólokhov might have as many more, but the disparity of numbers did not deter Denísov.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - Nelson's splendid naval tactics easily compensated for the disparity of numbers.
— from A History of EnglandEleventh Edition by Charles Oman - Their life seems an immense disparity between effort and opportunity.
— from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - These friends were in the game that of playing with the disparity between her aspect and her character.
— from The Golden Bowl — Volume 1 by Henry James - He seemed to have been blind to that disparity between his acts and sayings which had distinguished him in Lickitysplit.
— from The Light in the Clearing: A Tale of the North Country in the Time of Silas Wright by Irving Bacheller - There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - ‘There can be no disparity in marriage, like unsuitability of mind and purpose.’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - ‘There can be no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose’—‘no disparity in marriage like unsuitability of mind and purpose.’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
