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Literary notes about Resignation (AI summary)

In literature, "resignation" is portrayed as a complex emotion that can signify everything from calm submission to fate’s decree to bitter acceptance of injustice. Some authors depict it as a quiet, almost sacred yielding to a higher power or destiny—as when a character simply bows to the Divine will [1] or faces death with manly fortitude and pious surrender [2]—while others use it to express the weight of social or personal defeat, capturing a sense of melancholy reluctance or even defiant critique of oppressive forces [3][4]. At times, resignation appears in subtle physical gestures—a shrug or a wistful sigh—that speak to a character’s inner reconciliation with life’s hardships [5][6]. Through these varied portrayals, resignation in literature becomes more than a passive act of giving up; it is a reflective, often ambivalent stance that encapsulates both the acceptance of inevitable circumstances and a deeper commentary on the human struggle against forces beyond individual control [7][8].
  1. With simple resignation he bowed to the Divine decree.
    — from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein
  2. Being condemned, he went cheerfully to the place of execution, and died with the most manly fortitude, and christian resignation.
    — from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
  3. "Since we must go let us go as soon as we can and have it over," said poor Anne with bitter resignation.
    — from Anne's House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery
  4. Resignation is not always a virtue; it is a crime when it encourages tyrants: there are no despots where there are no slaves!
    — from The Reign of Greed by José Rizal
  5. Douglas shrugged and spread his hands in a gesture of resignation.
    — from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone
  6. " He tore open the envelope with a sigh of resignation.
    — from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon
  7. Tragedy does not teach "resignation." ...
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book III and IV by Nietzsche
  8. The essential thing is to get to heaven, and resignation is only an additional means of doing so.
    — from The Social Contract & Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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