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Literary notes about Revile (AI summary)

Literary works have long employed the term revile as a vehicle for expressing deep-seated reproach and contempt. It is used both to depict characters who are verbally assailing one another in moments of heated discourse—as when a speaker denies any intention to cast blame, asserting, "I neither revile nor threaten" ([1])—and to illustrate broader societal condemnations, as seen in Homer’s call to refrain from incessantly abusing authority ([2]). Authors also use revile to show the interplay between aggression and moral judgment, where insults and reproaches serve as powerful instruments for exposing corruption or injustice, whether in personal confrontations or in broader critiques of religious and philosophical doctrines ([3], [4]). The word, steeped in a long history of denotation and connotation, enriches character development and thematic exposition throughout literature by linking language with the raw expression of human emotion and societal discontent ([5], [6], [7]).
  1. ‘I neither revile nor threaten,’ rejoined the man.
    — from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  2. Drop this chatter about kings, and neither revile them nor keep harping about going home.
    — from The Iliad by Homer
  3. And on this ground they take occasion to revile the Christian religion, because they misunderstand it.
    — from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal
  4. Compare: 'Blessed are ye when men shall revile and persecute you for My sake,'
    — from Vidyāpati: Bangīya padābali; songs of the love of Rādhā and Krishna by active 15th century Vidyāpati Thākura
  5. They had no heart to grin, or even to revile me: but I believe they thought me gone mad—with fright, maybe.
    — from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
  6. for Heaven's sake!” said Rebecca; “stay, though it be to curse and to revile me—thy presence is yet some protection.”
    — from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott
  7. 'In the meanness of your nature you revile me with the meanness of my birth.
    — from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

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