Literary notes about Garment (AI summary)
Across literary works, the term "garment" operates on multiple levels, denoting both everyday clothing and a richer, symbolic covering. In some texts it is employed in its literal sense, representing common attire worn daily, as noted in the suggestion of an "every-day inconspicuous garment" [1] or even a "coarse woollen garment" that signifies a certain order of society [2]. In other instances, it serves as a metaphor for identity and transformation—a covering of the soul or a marker of emotional state, such as the garment that carries one's inner being into the world [3, 4]. Additionally, it can imply honor, disgrace, or even physical protection, as when divine justice is described as a double garment of righteousness [5] or when a man’s dignity is announced by a purple woollen garment [6]. This versatile use underscores how garments, whether literal or figurative, contribute to character depiction, thematic development, and cultural symbolism across the literary canon [7, 8].
- It is supposed to be an every-day inconspicuous garment and should be.
— from Etiquette by Emily Post - On this public holiday, as on all other occasions for seven years past, Hester was clad in a garment of coarse gray cloth.
— from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - The garment containing the soul is then placed on or beside the child, and if the child does not die recovery is sure to follow, sooner or later.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - While he is alive the body deliquesces and decays, and the soul always weaves another garment and repairs the waste.
— from Phaedo by Plato - God will clothe thee with the double garment of justice, and will set a crown on thy head of everlasting honour.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - A coarse woollen garment of purple was the only circumstance that announced his dignity.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - And yet what is the feeling of lovers when they recognize a lyre, or a garment, or anything else which the beloved has been in the habit of using?
— from Phaedo by Plato - The Devil appeared to him as an angel clothed in a garment woven of gold, on his head a jewelled diadem, and said, ‘Bravest of men!
— from Demonology and Devil-lore by Moncure Daniel Conway