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.
- I don't mind betting that he was bragging from vanity and partly to humiliate me.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - "Oh, I think you should humiliate him a little.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - 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 - what a fool I have been to humiliate myself before them!
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Why do you humiliate yourself like this, and place yourself lower than these people?
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I have my consolation, though it would be difficult to explain it—but I do not humiliate myself.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - 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 - 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 - 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