Literary notes about Oppressive (AI summary)
In literature, "oppressive" is employed to convey an overwhelming sense of burden, whether it be physical, emotional, or societal. It describes environments where heat or silence feels suffocating and stifling, as when the morning sun becomes almost unbearable [1] or when the heavy air creates an atmosphere of dread [2]. At other times, it captures internal states, evoking deep emotional weight, as in the paralyzing guilt that confines a character’s spirit [3] or the silent sorrow that permeates one’s mind [4]. The term is also applied to external forces—ranging from tyrannical governments [5] and unjust taxes [6, 7] to dominating powers that subjugate entire communities [8, 9]—each usage emphasizing a relentless, all-encompassing pressure that both physical and moral realms can impose [10, 11, 12].
- Although it was only about seven o'clock, the morning sun would soon be oppressive.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - There were dark, rolling clouds overhead, and in the air the heavy, oppressive sense of thunder.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - This oppressive and paralysing sense of guilt and of sin is what Nietzsche refers to when he speaks of “the spirit of gravity.”
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - I felt stunned by the awful event; and my memory unavoidably recurred to former times with a sort of oppressive sadness.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - His government was oppressive or unpopular, and the general discontent was expressed with freedom by the deputies of Rome.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The most oppressive taxes were imposed, and trade was brought completely to a standstill.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various - The public taxes, to which they were subject, were as irregular and oppressive as the services.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - "The kings who are there are oppressive to the people of the country, so that every man is against them who has tax or service to pay.
— from Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorri Sturluson - No oppressive aristocracy has ever prevailed in the colonies.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - This struck Arkady, and his heart ached with a poignant and oppressive pain.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - This air is most oppressive!—Madam—the Duke!
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - The intercourse of the white men with the Indians, however, is too apt to be cold, distrustful, oppressive, and insulting.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving
