Literary notes about Strumpet (AI summary)
The term "strumpet" in literature is deployed as a potent epithet that interrogates a character's morality and sexual propriety. Writers often use it to denigrate women by portraying them as untrustworthy or licentious, a usage apparent in charged declarations and bitter reproach. Its employment ranges from expressions of personal betrayal, as in the disdainful remark “I am your latest strumpet” [1], to broader indictments of fate and fortune, seen when fate itself is dubbed “strumpet Fortune” [2]. Even celebrated dramatists like Shakespeare and Webster wield the word to layer their characters with ambiguity and moral complexity [3][4], while modern authors extend its abrasive imagery to critique contemporary societal attitudes [5].