Literary notes about Oppression (AI summary)
In literature, the term oppression is portrayed as both an external force of domination and an internal, emotional burden. Authors invoke it to illustrate the harsh realities of systematic subjugation—as seen when chronicling the exploitation of serfs and citizens under despotic reigns [1, 2, 3, 4]—and to capture the individual's heavy, often stifling, sense of confinement and despair [5, 6, 7]. Moreover, oppression is not merely a historical condition but also a symbol of injustice and societal constraint, prompting reflections on liberty, resistance, and the human spirit’s struggle against overwhelming power [8, 9, 10, 11].
- But it was not upon the male serfs that the greatest oppression fell.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - [ Yet Schmidt, from the best authorities, represents the interior disorders and oppression of his reign, (Hist. des Allemands, tom. ii.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The mild and humane temper of Constantius was averse to the oppression of any part of his subjects.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - After he had permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage and avarice, he instituted a more regular system of rapine and oppression.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - When I could cry no more, I began to think; and then the oppression on my breast was heaviest, and my grief a dull pain that there was no ease for.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - I was alone; none were near me to dissipate the gloom, and relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most terrible reveries.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - An indescribable oppression, which seemed to generate in some unfamiliar part of her consciousness, filled her whole being with a vague anguish.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - To redeem the earth from kingcraft and oppression—THIS IS OUR MISSION!
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - What barricade of wrong, injustice, and oppression has ever been carried except by force?
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - Custom, and the manners of the time, had moreover created a species of law in the midst of violence, and established certain limits to oppression.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - Liberty is not less a blessing, because oppression has so long darkened the mind that it can not appreciate it.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I
