Literary notes about Guarded (AI summary)
Writers use the term guarded to evoke both physical protection and a sense of reserved caution. In many historical and military narratives, it describes tangible defenses—a bastion watched by enemy scouts [1], a door secured by sentinels [2], or fortifications manned with archers and cavalry [3, 4]. At the same time, the word takes on a more abstract nuance when referring to a character’s demeanor or state of mind, as when emotions are kept discreet and secrets carefully concealed [5] or when someone adopts a cool, wary attitude [6]. This dual application richly enhances narrative tension by linking physical barriers with the inner barriers guarding personal information or vulnerability [7].
- The matter was to ascertain, by reconnoitering, how the enemy guarded this bastion.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - The principal door was shut, two sentinels guarded the side door.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - It was surrounded by an impassable moat, and guarded by archers.
— from Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, v. 1 of 3 by James Tod - Buell was marching through a hostile region and had to have his communications thoroughly guarded back to a base of supplies.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - Everything was laid bare, everything had been exposed, everything I had so jealously guarded and concealed!...
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - She was accordingly more guarded, and more cool, than she had been the night before.
— from Persuasion by Jane Austen - “They are guarded,” answered he, “so happily and so securely by their own conceit, that they are not aware of it from any body.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney
