Literary notes about Plunge (AI summary)
The word "plunge" in literature carries a range of connotations, from the literal to the metaphorical. It can describe a physical dive—such as a harpoon plunging into a squid’s eye ([1]) or a body being thrown into water ([2], [3])—while also evoking a sudden, decisive commitment or descent. Authors employ it to signal a rapid transition into a narrative or emotional state, as when a speaker abruptly delves into an anecdote ([4]) or a character embraces life’s pleasures with reckless abandon ([5]). In other cases, it underscores the thrust into danger or despair, with blades, emotions, or fates being thrust forcefully into conflict or ruin ([6], [7], [8]). Thus, "plunge" becomes a powerful, multifaceted term that enriches literary imagery by capturing both physical immersion and the leap into transformative, often unpredictable, circumstances.
- At every thrust Ned Land's harpoon would plunge into a squid's sea–green eye and burst it.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - Plunge into the water only once, and then come to me again.”
— from Folk-Tales of Bengal by Lal Behari Day - Then, plunge I 'mid the ocean's roar, My way by quiv'ring lightnings shewn, To guide the bark to peaceful shore, And hush the sailor's fearful groan.
— from The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Ward Radcliffe - Now and then a speaker will plunge without introduction into an anecdote, leaving the application to follow.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - He did not know what recreation of her whole being drove her more and more to plunge into the pleasures of life.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert - To-morrow I plunge into an adventurous affair in which I may be killed.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - I feel as if I were walking on the edge of a precipice, towards which thousands are crowding, and endeavouring to plunge me into the abyss.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - You are not going to plunge us into a European war, I hope?
— from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
