Literary notes about Enthusiasm (AI summary)
Literary authors employ the term "enthusiasm" as a dynamic indicator of fervor and emotion, using it to signify everything from the initial spark of creative genius to the potential excess of unbridled passion. In some works, such as those where a character’s first taste of success blazes like a hurricane ([1]) or where youthful vigor and mirth animate a narrative ([2]), enthusiasm becomes a powerful, transformative force. Yet it is not always portrayed positively; certain texts critique its overabundance—as when an excess of heart is noted with a tinge of shame ([3]) or when it is measured against the tempered expectations of reality ([4]). In other instances, enthusiasm is depicted as the driving energy behind noble ideals and public engagement, instigating both personal triumph and broader societal change ([5], [6]). This versatility in usage underscores how "enthusiasm" both elevates and complicates characters and themes across the literary spectrum.
- No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Once excited, he burst forth, a sort of mirth accentuated his enthusiasm, and he was at once both laughing and lyric.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - I really am sometimes ashamed of Vasya's excess of enthusiasm; it is, of course, the sign of a good heart, but ...
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - It's not much changed," he answered without enthusiasm.
— from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - Young men predominated, and their enthusiasm was aroused to the highest pitch by the eloquence of Peter R. Livingston, their venerable chairman.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - There is not a more melancholy Object than a Man who has his Head turned with Religious Enthusiasm.
— from The Spectator, Volume 1 by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele
