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Literary notes about Perform (AI summary)

In literature, the term perform is a multifaceted word that ranges from the execution of everyday duties to the enacting of profound rituals and heroic deeds. It is often used to stress the actual carrying out of a responsibility, as when a character is seen as incapable of fulfilling maternal obligations ([1]) or when the fulfillment of a duty is portrayed as essential to one’s honor ([2]). In dramatic contexts, it highlights the calculated representation of a role, inviting an interpretation that goes beyond mere action ([3], [4]). Moreover, perform is applied in more abstract or ritualistic arenas, where it signifies the execution of sacred rites or pivotal acts—whether in religious ceremonies ([5], [6], [7]) or in the pursuit of a grand purpose ([8]). Thus, through its varied usage, the word encapsulates the spectrum from practical expediency to the embodiment of deeper symbolic significance.
  1. Perhaps, I often think, she was too angelically innocent to have the strength to perform all a mother’s duties.
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
  2. “Certainly, but we resist these desires because we have duties to perform, which would rise up against us if we left them undone.”
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  3. In Acting, barely to perform the Part is not commendable, but to be the least out is contemptible.
    — from The Spectator, Volume 1 by Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele
  4. yet I did Would I perform, if I might have my will.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  5. Ἱερουργέω, ῶ, ἱερός & ἔργον ) f. ήσω, to officiate as priest, perform sacred rites; in N.T., to minister in a divine commission, Ro. 15.16.
    — from A Greek-English Lexicon to the New Testament by William Greenfield
  6. Therefore, O great king, let thy resolution be taken to perform this sacrifice without further discussion.
    — from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1
  7. The Taoist priests were summoned by edict to the palace to perform their rites.
    — from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. Werner
  8. In fact it is doubtful whether a man can perform very great service to mankind who is not permeated with a great purpose—with an overmastering idea.
    — from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

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