Literary notes about PLACED (AI summary)
The word "placed" in literature functions as a flexible and multifaceted term, conveying both physical positioning and metaphorical situating. Authors use it to denote the literal setting of objects or individuals, as seen when a "sixteen-sided stand" is positioned on the floor [1] or dishes are arranged on a table [2]. At the same time, "placed" extends beyond the tangible, illustrating abstract states or destinies—for instance, a character finding themselves in a "little dilemma" [3] or being positioned within a social hierarchy [4]. This dual usage is evident across genres and periods, from historical narratives [5] and philosophical treatises [6] to mythological epics [7], underscoring the term’s capacity to bridge the concrete with the conceptual.
- “Meanwhile a sixteen-sided stand, about six inches high and shaped like this diagram, had been placed on the floor near the Pâwang’s mat.
— from Malay Magic by Walter William Skeat - The servants entered and placed the dishes on the table.
— from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce - One morning, coming on me abruptly, and with the semblance of hurry, she said she found herself placed in a little dilemma.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - In aristocratic governments the individuals who are placed at the head of affairs are rich men, who are solely desirous of power.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - On arrival in Manila was placed in Fort Santiago dungeon.
— from Rizal's own story of his life by José Rizal - A vacuum is asserted: That is, bodies are said to be placed after such a manner, is to receive bodies betwixt them, without impulsion or penetration.
— from A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume - Enraged at finding all his precautions unavailing, Acrisius commanded the mother and child to be placed in a chest and thrown into the sea.
— from Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens
