Literary notes about Embarrassment (AI summary)
The word "embarrassment" in literature is often deployed to convey a spectrum of internal conflict and social awkwardness. It can denote that moment of vulnerability when a character feels out of place, as when compliments are received with an unshakeable awkwardness ([1]) or when physical signs of discomfort betray inner turmoil ([2]). At other times it illustrates a character’s struggle to mask or even relish a socially unfavorable circumstance, such as a monarch finding secret delight in his own predicament ([3]) or when a personal misstep becomes a marker of superiority and self-awareness ([4]). Authors thereby use the term to illuminate the human condition, capturing both routine social misadventures and moments of profound internal crisis ([5], [6], [7]).
- She had instinctively turned away; but stopping on his approach, received his compliments with an embarrassment impossible to be overcome.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Napoleon noticed Balashëv’s embarrassment when uttering these last words; his face twitched and the calf of his left leg began to quiver rhythmically.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - “You hear, madame,” said the king, who enjoyed the embarrassment to its full extent, but without guessing the cause.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - The embarrassment which he occasioned to those who spoke to him, flattered that secret satisfaction with which he felt his own superiority.'
— from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft - "Yes—yes; I know," he assented, with a rising tinge of embarrassment.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - " This "Yes, sir," uttered with calmness, and even with a certain embarrassment, told me all.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - But when he mentioned the Rostóvs, Princess Mary’s face expressed still greater embarrassment.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
