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Literary notes about Ineligible (AI summary)

The term "ineligible" has often been deployed in literature to denote a state of disqualification or unfitness for certain roles, relationships, or activities. In Austen’s depiction, for instance, it subtly conveys social acceptability as a measure of character suitability [1]. Similarly, Scadding and Twain use it in political and societal contexts to denote formal disqualifications from roles or offices [2], [3]. Fitzgerald employs the term in multiple hues—from romantic irony when referring to the “totally ineligible” men who pique his interest [4], to self-deprecating commentary about academic shortcomings [5]—while also illustrating social hierarchies in academic and organizational settings [6]. Shaw and Yogananda extend its use into more nuanced personal and situational evaluations, where eligibility relates to transformative personal circumstances or rigors of examination [7], [8]. Additionally, historical critiques, as found in the suffrage literature, critique exclusionary practices that render individuals ineligible based on gender [9].
  1. I am glad to find, however, from what you say, that he is a respectable young man, and one whose acquaintance will not be ineligible.
    — from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
  2. In 1806 Judges were not ineligible to the Upper Canadian Parliament.
    — from Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding
  3. Thus Dissenters were ineligible; they could not run if asked, they could not serve if elected.
    — from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
  4. The unfortunate part is that the only men who interest me at all are the totally ineligible ones.
    — from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  5. I was ineligible, because some silly old men thought we should all profit by conic sections.
    — from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  6. Anybody that'd risk what you were in line for ought to be ineligible for Princetonian chairman.”
    — from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  7. It is true that Eliza's situation did not seem wholly ineligible.
    — from Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw
  8. If I failed to pass his final written classroom test, I would be ineligible to take the conclusive examinations.
    — from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
  9. The Church having first made woman ineligible to the priesthood, punished her on account of the restrictions of its own making.
    — from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I

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