Literary notes about Imprecation (AI summary)
The term "imprecation" in literature often serves as a vehicle for conveying a spectrum of emotional and dramatic effects. In some works, it acts as a playful or tender curse—a mild imprecation that, despite its ostensibly light tone, carries an undercurrent of directed misfortune, as seen in Walter Scott's narrative [1]. In other texts, however, imprecations take on a more grave and vivid character; for example, Henry Scadding employs it to evoke a sense of solemn defiance with a curse directed at the North Pole [2], while H. G. Wells uses it to punctuate moments of tangible tension and disruption, where the utterance of an imprecation is almost a physical catalyst for change [3, 4]. Alexandre Dumas further enhances this dynamic by presenting imprecations as expressions of furious anger that incite equally wild reactions [5]. Moreover, Charles Dickens illustrates how such curses manifest in personal conflicts, imbuing his characters with a sharp, literalized critique of one another [6], and Victor Hugo notes the term's evolution by suggesting that oaths have increasingly adopted the character of imprecations [7].