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Literary notes about Entangle (AI summary)

The term “entangle” in literature occupies a multifaceted role, serving both literal and metaphorical purposes. In some works, authors employ it to depict a physical or tangible binding—such as threads or webs that capture or restrict movement, as found in the precise notion of "entangling the feet" [1] or the vivid imagery of a ship’s screw caught in seaweed [2, 3]. In other texts, “entangle” is metaphorical, reflecting the complexities of involvement that bind ideas, emotions, or destinies. For instance, Santayana warns against mixing ideals with negative impulses [4], while Tagore and Conan Doyle use it to evoke the intimacy and potential peril of emotional attachments [5, 6]. Similarly, works like those of à Kempis and Montaigne counsel caution against becoming ensnared by external influences—from the obligations of powerful individuals to the labyrinth of metaphysical error [7, 8, 9, 10]. Thus, across multiple genres and eras, “entangle” vividly encapsulates the tension between freedom and constraint, whether in the physical realm or the intricate tapestry of human relationships and thought.
  1. 20 praepedissent = hampered , lit. to entangle the feet ( prae + pes ).
    — from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Edmund Luce
  2. And Captain Nemo, not wishing to entangle his screw in this herbaceous mass, kept some yards beneath the surface of the waves.
    — from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne
  3. Did the Nautilus dare entangle itself in the Manche?
    — from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne
  4. Now civilisation cannot afford to entangle its ideals with the causes of remorse and of just indignation.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  5. I ask myself, "Is it a dream?" Could I but entangle your feet with my heart and hold them fast to my breast!
    — from The gardener by Rabindranath Tagore
  6. She would not endeavour to entangle the old gentleman in a sentimental attachment which might deliver him over to his enemy.
    — from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
  7. Busy not thyself with the affairs of others, nor entangle thyself with the business of great men.
    — from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas
  8. Is it not better to remain in suspense than to entangle one’s self in the innumerable errors that human fancy has produced?
    — from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne
  9. 2. "Put them away from thy heart as well as thou canst, and if tribulation hath touched thee, yet let it not cast thee down nor entangle thee long.
    — from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas
  10. It may happen that we entangle ourselves, and help to strengthen the point itself.
    — from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne

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