Literary notes about Expose (AI summary)
Writers employ "expose" to suggest the act of uncovering or revealing what was hidden—be it a character’s vulnerability, a societal flaw, or a concealed truth. In some works, it highlights the risk of revealing oneself too fully, as when a character faces public scrutiny or danger ([1], [2], [3]). In others, the term is used more abstractly to critique moral shortcomings or to unmask hypocrisy and deceit ([4], [5], [6]). Thus, whether denoting physical, emotional, or ethical disclosure, "expose" enriches a narrative by linking the literal act of unveiling with the broader pursuit of truth and authenticity ([7], [8]).
- All this, I say, must be fresh in your recollection, and yet you have the audacity to ask me to expose myself again in a similar manner.”
— from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass - A person boxing may dodge a particular blow successfully, but in such a way as to expose himself the next instant to a still harder blow.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - Don’t you expose it to a good deal of excitement, sir?’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - Zarathustra created this most portentous of all errors,—morality; therefore he must be the first to expose it.
— from Ecce Homo by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - For Helena's sake she had wished to expose Bertram's meanness, not only to the King, but to himself.
— from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by E. Nesbit and William Shakespeare - I have tried to expose to the view of the public more distinctly than is commonly done, one of the characters of the recent past.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I was not going to stand there to expose my tortured feelings to the insolent laughter and impertinent curiosity of a fellow like that.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - In short, to enter the lists of literature is wilfully to expose yourself to the arrows of neglect, ridicule, envy, and disappointment.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. Lewis
