Literary notes about Privileged (AI summary)
Literary authors use “privileged” in diverse ways to indicate special access, superior status, or exclusive opportunity. In some works, characters are afforded the honor of being uniquely entrusted with secret knowledge or intimate moments, as when a character is privileged to share confidences or experiences ([1], [2], [3]). In other contexts the word underscores a higher social ranking or ceremonial positioning, such as a leader’s specially assigned place in a ritual or career ([4], [5], [6]). It is also employed to evoke a sense of burden or isolation that accompanies exceptional favor, whether in religious, philosophical, or social commentary ([7], [8], [9]). Through these varied uses, “privileged” becomes a versatile tool that encapsulates both the honor and the inherent contradictions of power and exclusivity ([10]).
- Mrs. Bennet was privileged to whisper it to Mrs. Philips, and she ventured, without any permission, to do the same by all her neighbours in Meryton.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - These are conditions which, considering everything, I had no hesitation in complying with, as far as I thought myself privileged, for you.
— from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - “Why can she not influence him more, when she is privileged to draw so near to him?”
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - This canoe always leads the fleet; that is to say, on big ceremonial Kula sailings, called uvalaku , it has the privileged position.
— from Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronislaw Malinowski - In aristocracies the military profession, being a privileged career, is held in honor even in time of peace.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville - No European noble is more exclusive in his pleasures, or more jealous of the smallest advantages which his privileged station confers upon him.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - It had its hidden wisdom, its exclusive mysteries, its privileged class.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - And so my flesh is privileged to suffer for His body—His spiritual body, the Church.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - The doors of Skuytercliff were rarely and grudgingly opened to visitors, and a chilly week-end was the most ever offered to the few thus privileged.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - The galleries were packed with spectators, and the areas thronged with judges, ambassadors, governors, and other privileged persons.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
