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Literary notes about Interloper (AI summary)

The term "interloper" has been wielded by authors to evoke a sense of unwelcome intrusion and discord. Emerson uses the word to denote a figure who trespasses into a realm where he evidently does not belong, hinting at a societal or personal misfit [1]. Whitman, in contrast, casts the interloper as a gloomy, taciturn presence that lingers despite the passage of time [2]. Poe introduces a striking, unexpected twist by describing a "feminine interloper," using the term to underscore the character’s surprising and disruptive nature [3]. Du Bois portrays the interloper as an object of disdain—a burden one is eager to rid oneself of—even if only temporarily [4]. Finally, Brontë intensifies the hostility associated with the word by coupling it with a bitter curse, thereby underlining an aggressive repudiation of the intrusive presence [5].
  1. Let him not peep or steal, or skulk up and down with the air of a charity-boy, a bastard, or an interloper, in the world which exists for him.
    — from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson
  2. The day wore on, and the sun went down in the west; still the interloper, gloomy and taciturn, made no signs of departing.
    — from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman
  3. Captain Mann?” here screamed some little feminine interloper from the farthest corner of the room.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
  4. The mother was glad of anything to get rid of the interloper, even for a moment.
    — from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois
  5. ‘And I pray that he may break your neck: take him, and be damned, you beggarly interloper!
    — from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

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