Literary notes about SOUL (AI summary)
The term "soul" in literature is employed as a multifaceted symbol that embodies not only the spiritual essence of a person but also their emotional depth and inner life. In some works, it represents the inseparable union of body and inner spirit, suggesting that life includes both tangible and intangible aspects ([1]); in others, it is the wellspring of hope, joy, and renewal, as when a stirring sound emerges from the recesses of a weary life ([2], [3]). Authors extend its range to the metaphysical, invoking theories of immortality and divine origin ([4], [5]), while it is equally deployed in everyday contexts to capture profound personal suffering or triumph, whether as a measure of grief, responsibility, or resilient selfhood ([6], [7]). This varied usage highlights the word's capacity to traverse the realms of the physical, the emotional, and the philosophical in literature.
- And when they took people they took body and soul together.’
— from The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by W. Y. Evans-Wentz - This illusion, at which he shook his head a moment later, was sufficient, nevertheless, to throw beams, which at times resembled hope, into his soul.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Then, out of remote areas of his soul, out of past times of his now weary life, a sound stirred up.
— from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse - "Since, then, that which is immortal is also incorruptible, can the soul, since it is immortal, be any thing else than imperishable?"
— from Apology, Crito, and Phaedo of Socrates by Plato - But in the Phaedo the doctrine of ideas is subordinate to the proof of the immortality of the soul.
— from Meno by Plato - I was unfair to her; she is a Christian soul, gentlemen, yes, I tell you, she's a gentle soul, and not to blame for anything.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - While I shall be alone among strangers, not knowing a soul!” “EXCEPT Gilbert—AND Charlie Sloane,” said Diana, imitating Anne’s italics and slyness.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
