Literary notes about Narrow (AI summary)
In literature, "narrow" frequently connotes both physical constriction and metaphorical limitation. It is used to describe tight, confined spaces—whether a cave so constricted that one must crawl on all fours [1], a dark passageway that ushers one into enveloping darkness [2], or narrow streets that intensify a setting's bleak mood [3]. The word also casts light on constrained viewpoints, as when a character’s limited perspective is critiqued, suggesting a mind confined to petty concerns [4]. In some works, "narrow" links the tangible and the abstract, evoking not only the physical reality of tight passages and cramped architecture [5, 6], but also the mental rigidity of those who are unwilling or unable to embrace broader horizons [7, 8].
- The cave was so dark and narrow that the hero soon found himself obliged to creep on all fours, and to grope his way.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Hardly had the narrow panel closed upon me, when I was enveloped in darkness.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - At last we came into the narrow streets of Deal, and very gloomy they were upon a raw misty morning.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - Other possibilities had been in him, possibilities sacrificed, one by one, to Zeena's narrow-mindedness and ignorance.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - A narrow canal at the end of the street, was, I thought, the very place to throw my enemy in.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - It was a long, narrow room with shelves, and at the far end, an old iron chest.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois - All such exaggeration of a single and narrow standpoint is [Pg 401] in itself a sign of sickness.
— from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche - [24] From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a narrow passage.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
