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Literary notes about Jeering (AI summary)

The term "jeering" is often deployed in literature to convey a potent mixture of scorn, mockery, and derision, embodying both the tone and the physical manifestation of contempt. Authors utilize it to underscore a character's disdain, whether through a cutting laugh or a sardonic smile, as seen in Dickens’ portrayal of Monks’s dismissive reaction [1] and in Dumas’s depiction of D’Artagnan’s familiar, taunting manner [2]. In some narratives, "jeering" takes on a broader social function, reflecting collective derision—illustrated by the hostile barrage of a taunting mob in Wilde’s text [3]—or serving as a tool for satirical commentary on societal norms. This multifaceted use, further echoed in the biting irony of voices in Homer’s epic [4] and the self-deprecating humor in Chekhov’s work [5], enriches the literary texture by heightening conflict and illuminating the dynamics between ridicule and authority.
  1. 'I don't care for hard names,' interrupted Monks with a jeering laugh.
    — from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
  2. “What is it?” said D’Artagnan, with that jeering manner which our readers have so often observed in him since they made his acquaintance.
    — from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  3. For half an hour I stood there in the grey November rain surrounded by a jeering mob.
    — from De Profundis by Oscar Wilde
  4. When we had got twice as far as we were before, I was for jeering at the Cyclops again, but the men begged and prayed of me to hold my tongue.
    — from The Odyssey by Homer
  5. He was always jeering at himself, saying that fools like him were only made for the public to ride rough-shod over them.
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

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