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Literary notes about MATCH (AI summary)

The word “match” in literature is a vibrant, multifaceted term that can illustrate both literal functions and metaphorical significance. It may denote a tool for creating light or fire, as when a character strikes a match to illuminate a dark space [1, 2, 3], yet it also encapsulates the concept of an equal adversary or companion, exemplified by phrases like “met his match” to depict confrontation or equivalence [4, 5]. Furthermore, “match” extends into the realm of human relationships and social commentary, where it can describe a well-suited marriage or partnership, or even serve as a witty comparison in contests of intellect or spirit [6, 7, 8]. Whether setting off the spark in a physical sense, igniting a conflict, or symbolizing compatibility between characters, the term enriches narrative layers by bridging the literal and figurative worlds of storytelling.
  1. With the help of a match, Ib struck a light, and approached her.
    — from Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen by H. C. Andersen
  2. I quickly struck a match, but I had been mistaken; there was nothing there.
    — from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant
  3. By this time the Colonel was conveying a lighted match into a poor little stove.
    — from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner
  4. In him "at last the scornful world had met its match."
    — from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden
  5. In short, I stand here single-handed against a Government and a whole subsidized machinery of tribunals and police, and I am a match for them all.”
    — from Father Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
  6. If this Madame de Richmond be well off, and it is a good match, I shall see this marriage with pleasure.
    — from Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-1812 by Emperor of the French Napoleon I
  7. "I understand; queens of society can't get on without money, so you mean to make a good match, and start in that way?
    — from Little Women; Or, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Louisa May Alcott
  8. Don't we all know that it must be a match, that they were over head and ears in love with each other from the first moment they met?
    — from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

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