Literary notes about Opprobrium (AI summary)
In literature, opprobrium is deployed as a potent term to denote profound shame and public disgrace, serving as a verbal scar that marks moral failures and social transgressions. Authors employ it to evoke the weight of collective condemnation—whether it be the lasting environmental stain on a reputation or the public’s retaliatory scorn toward a misdeed [1][2]. At times, opprobrium colors the narrative with an ironic twist, transforming personal sorrow or social ostracism into a broader commentary on ethical decrepitude and the consequences of defiance against communal norms [3][4]. It can also be wielded to critique institutions and policies, as it underscores the inevitability of retribution and the moral gravity of actions that fall outside accepted conduct [5][6].
- For three or four generations, society has united in withering with contempt and opprobrium the shameless futility of Mme.
— from The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams - Dishonor, baseness, shame, and opprobrium are there!
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - A habit reprehensible at puberty is second nature and an opprobrium in middle life.
— from Ulysses by James Joyce - With a strong effort she heaped opprobrium and shame upon herself, denounced herself, tried to hate herself.
— from A Daughter of To-Day by Sara Jeannette Duncan - The publication of this book raised a storm of opprobrium, for England was then far more illiberal than now.
— from Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, April 1885 by Various - From that day these outrages have never ceased, until now they have reached a pitch which makes us the opprobrium of the civilized world.
— from The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
