Literary notes about Prone (AI summary)
The word "prone" in literature frequently functions on two levels: it denotes a physical position while also suggesting a natural tendency toward certain behaviors or conditions. Authors use it vividly to describe characters literally lying down, as when a figure is depicted like a severed bough lying prone on the bare earth [1] or a giant collapsing face down [2]. At the same time, “prone” is widely employed metaphorically to indicate an inherent predisposition—whether it be to ill health [3], to anger [4], or even to love [5]. This dual usage enriches the narrative by intertwining physical posture with character traits, thereby deepening our insight into both the state and character of individuals on the page [6].
- Then, like a severed bough, she lay Prone on the bare earth in dismay.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - I fought the chief: my arms Minerva crown'd: Prone fell the giant o'er a length of ground.
— from The Iliad by Homer - He was a taciturn man difficult to deal with and prone to ill health.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - But men, whose dearest wishes are fixed on objects wholly out of their own power, become in all cases more or less impatient and prone to anger.
— from Biographia Literaria by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - For he was so immoderately prone to love, that it was doubtful whether the heat of his tyranny or of his concupiscence was the greater.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo - Before the bier the bleeding Hector threw, Prone on the dust.
— from The Iliad by Homer
