Literary notes about Inscrutable (AI summary)
Writers deploy "inscrutable" to evoke mystery and the unknowable in both characters and abstract concepts. In Dickens’ work, it hints at a hidden, enduring discomfort, while in Conrad’s narratives it often represents profound internal conflict and fate’s impenetrability [1, 2, 3]. The term surfaces in philosophical and theological discussions as well, underscoring the limits of human understanding in the face of divine or infinite forces [4, 5]. Moreover, when used to describe a character’s demeanor or look—as seen in portrayals of uncommunicative eyes or a fixed, enigmatic expression—it deepens the reader’s sense of ambiguity and uncertainty [6, 7]. Thus, "inscrutable" becomes a versatile tool for layering complexity and inviting contemplation.
- Mrs Wilfer thanked him with a magnanimous sigh, and again became an unresisting prey to that inscrutable toothache.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - He is gone, inscrutable at heart, and the poor girl is leading a sort of soundless, inert life in Stein’s house.
— from Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad - It was the stillness of an implacable force brooding over an inscrutable intention.
— from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - To say that the infinite is wholly inscrutable by man, is to limit not man's faculty only, but the possibilities of the divine nature itself.
— from British Quarterly Review, American Edition, Vol. LIV July and October, 1871 by Various - Again, in many regards God may be utterly inscrutable to us, since he may possess characteristics which we cannot attain by logical deductions.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - When Hanson came home he wore the same inscrutable demeanour.
— from Sister Carrie: A Novel by Theodore Dreiser - At least, I straightened my tie and smiled one of those inscrutable smiles of mine.
— from Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
