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Literary notes about Perplex (AI summary)

The word "perplex" has been used in literature to denote a state of confusion or bewilderment, whether in philosophical musings, narrative tension, or even in technical contexts. Philosophers and essayists such as Schopenhauer ([1]), Santayana ([2], [3]), and Burke ([4]) employ it to describe the limitations of reason and the uncanny complexity of thought, suggesting that certain ideas or phenomena naturally disturb clear understanding. In personal narratives and character development, as seen in Helen Keller’s work ([5]) or in the reflective tones of Du Bois ([6]) and Harte ([7]), "perplex" conveys a deliberate emotional or intellectual disarray that adds depth to the human experience. Its usage also stretches into more whimsical or playful terrains, where even a puzzling mathematical problem can leave novices baffled ([8], [9], [10]), while classic literary figures like Blake ([11]) and Byron ([12]) use it to evoke a sense of tangled, inescapable confusion.
  1. But that ought not to perplex him.
    — from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims by Arthur Schopenhauer
  2. No such painful image comes to perplex the plain sense of instinctive, poetic religion.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  3. They perplex the conscience.
    — from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
  4. But this does not in the least perplex our reasoning; because we distinguish to the last the acquired from the natural relish.
    — from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
  5. But great care has been taken not to lead her thoughts prematurely to the consideration of subjects which perplex and confuse all minds.
    — from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
  6. Nor does the paradox and danger of this situation fail to interest and perplex the best conscience of the South.
    — from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois
  7. I should have lived only to worry and perplex him, and something in me tells me this is right.'
    — from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte
  8. And yet it is apt to perplex the novice a good deal if he wants to do it in the fewest possible pieces—three.
    — from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney
  9. And it will perplex the reader to say what a "square penny" is.
    — from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney
  10. There are some curious facts concerning the movements of wheels that are apt to perplex the novice.
    — from Amusements in Mathematics by Henry Ernest Dudeney
  11. Folly is an endless maze; Tangled roots perplex her ways; How many have fallen there!
    — from Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
  12. perplex
    — from Don Juan by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron

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