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Literary notes about Humiliate (AI summary)

The word "humiliate" in literature is employed in a variety of nuanced ways, often reflecting both external degradation and internal self-diminishment. In some works, characters use humiliation deliberately as an instrument of power or revenge, as seen when one character seeks to "humiliate me" or another [1, 2, 3]. In contrast, authors like Dostoyevsky portray self-humiliation, where a character laments having "humiliated myself" or questions why they should "humiliate yourself" [4, 5, 6]. Meanwhile, writers such as Bergson and Tagore delve into the social implications of humiliation, suggesting it not only lowers but also serves as a tool to enforce societal norms or assert superiority [7, 8, 9]. Thus, the term "humiliate" functions both as a direct insult and as a mechanism for critiquing social hierarchies across literary genres.
  1. I don't mind betting that he was bragging from vanity and partly to humiliate me.
    — from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  2. "Oh, I think you should humiliate him a little.
    — from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  3. What a good thing it would be [122] to humiliate and hold up to ridicule that dudish boy, always smartly dressed, with head erect and serene look!
    — from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal
  4. what a fool I have been to humiliate myself before them!
    — from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  5. Why do you humiliate yourself like this, and place yourself lower than these people?
    — from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. I have my consolation, though it would be difficult to explain it—but I do not humiliate myself.
    — from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  7. In laughter we always find an unavowed intention to humiliate, and consequently to correct our neighbour, if not in his will, at least in his deed.
    — from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson
  8. She not only cannot forget that she is Western, but she takes every opportunity to hurl this fact against others to humiliate them.
    — from Nationalism by Rabindranath Tagore
  9. Being intended to humiliate, it must make a painful impression on the person against whom it is directed.
    — from Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic by Henri Bergson

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