Literary notes about STRESS (AI summary)
In literature, the word "stress" is employed in a multitude of contexts, ranging from the depiction of physical and emotional strain to the highlighting of linguistic emphasis. It can denote the extreme pressure that causes bodily or mental breakdown, as seen when a character's endurance is pushed to its limits and physical symptoms appear [1, 2, 3]. At the same time, authors use the term to underscore the importance of specific words or ideas—drawing attention to particular nuances of language, whether in a measured accentuation of syllables or in the prioritization of a central theme [4, 5, 6]. In narrative descriptions, stress may also function as a metaphor for the intensity of situational forces, such as unfavorable weather or societal exigencies that compel action [7, 8, 9]. Thus, across genres and eras, "stress" emerges as a versatile device that encapsulates both the tumult of external pressures and the subtle inflections of verbal emphasis.
- The stress now getting beyond endurance, her lip quivered, and she was obliged to go away.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy - Their hands and arms trembled under the stress.
— from Dubliners by James Joyce - Tom would never have done so inconsiderate a thing except under the severe stress of his personal pride.
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - This language is inarticulate, but it has tone, stress, and meaning.
— from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - " There were volumes of innuendo in the way the "eventually" was spaced, and each syllable given its due stress.
— from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton - “I heard and saw everything,” he said, laying stress on the last verb.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - In Oct., 1828, Sir Peregrine Maitland arrives in York Harbour on board of the yacht Bullfrog , compelled to put in by stress of weather.
— from Toronto of Old by Henry Scadding - The time is come: with heedless eye He sees the hour of action fly,— Unmindful, now his hopes succeed, Of promise made in stress of need.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - During all the financial stress through which the school has passed, his patience and faith in our ultimate success have not left him.
— from Up from Slavery: An Autobiography by Booker T. Washington
