Literary notes about Key (AI summary)
The term key serves both concrete and metaphorical functions in literature. In some texts it is a tangible instrument that grants access or secures secrets—unlocking doors, drawers, or even entire narratives ([1], [2], [3])—while in others it represents the essential insight or underlying clue that unravels a work’s deeper meaning ([4], [5]). At times, the key is imbued with symbolic power, denoting authority or the possibility of transformation, as when a character possesses "the key" to another’s fate ([6], [7]). In modern narratives, the word can even extend into technical realms, hinting at concepts like encryption ([8]). Across these varied uses, the word deepens our engagement with both the literal and figurative thresholds that define a story’s landscape ([9]).
- When this was done, Eugénie opened a drawer, of which she kept the key, and took from it a wadded violet silk travelling cloak.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - In crossing the bridge, she dropped the door key in the river.
— from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - The sound of the key turning in the lock awoke him from his slumbers.
— from The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie - But there is in Macbeth one marked peculiarity, the true apprehension of which is the key to Shakespeare's conception.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley - These three things, his keen observation, his active imagination, and the actor's spirit which animated him, furnish a key to his life and writings.
— from English Literature by William J. Long - I have the key.” Thénardier pointed to Marius.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - That key must be in the Count’s room; I must watch should his door be unlocked, so that I may get it and escape.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - The program PGP has become the defacto international Internet standard for public key encryption.
— from The Online World by Odd De Presno - The passage you so often have explored— Here is the garden-key—Fly—fly—Adieu! Haste—haste!
— from Don Juan by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron
