Literary notes about STUPOR (AI summary)
The term "stupor" is frequently employed to evoke a state of lethargy or altered consciousness, be it physical exhaustion, emotional numbness, or a condition of mental dislocation. In some works, the word portrays a weary, almost sleep-like fatigue where characters exist on the threshold between awareness and unconsciousness ([1], [2], [3]), while in others it emphasizes an imposed sense of detachment or despair brought on by overwhelming circumstances ([4], [5], [6]). Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne use the term to mark moments of sudden awakening or regression, capturing the shift from deep contemplation or shock back to alertness ([7], [8], [9]). In historical and societal narratives, "stupor" is also extended metaphorically to depict collective inaction or a numbed response to calamity, thus deepening the portrayal of both individual and communal experiences ([10], [11]).
- He was too tired to feel sleepy, and he lay, scarcely thinking, in a semi-stupor of weariness, until it was time for supper.
— from Martin Eden by Jack London - After a short relapse into sleep or stupor, he makes, of a sudden, a strong effort to get out of bed.
— from Bleak House by Charles Dickens - A deep stupor had taken hold of my mind: thought seemed to stand still.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - At night when Margaret realised this, she felt inclined to sit down in a stupor of despair.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - There was nothing but fright, mourning, stupor in the houses; and in the streets, a sort of sacred horror.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Little by little, nevertheless, this confidence diminished, and irony gave place to astonishment; astonishment changed to stupor.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - We found him lying at full length, apparently in a deep stupor, yet still alive.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - But, when I recovered from this stupor, there dawned upon me gradually a conviction which startled me even far more than the coincidence.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe - But Ayrton was now in a profound stupor, from which it was no longer possible to rouse him.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - 'O everlasting infamy,' exclaims Montgaillard, 'that Paris stood looking on in stupor for four days, and did not interfere!'
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle - Very desirable indeed that Paris had interfered; yet not unnatural that it stood even so, looking on in stupor.
— from The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
