Literary notes about Stupefaction (AI summary)
In literature, stupefaction is employed to convey a sudden, overwhelming shock that renders characters momentarily speechless or immobilized. Authors use the term to illustrate a range of emotional responses—from the frozen dismay of an officer’s expression [1] to the muteness born out of incredulity when one stares in stupefaction [2, 3]. This state of awed paralysis is not confined solely to sensations of fear; it also mingles with wonder, as seen when the overwhelming realization of an event leaves one momentarily unable to react [4]. At times, the intensity of stupefaction even borders on the absurd or tragic, encapsulating both the marvel and the disorientation experienced when confronted with events too extraordinary to process [5].
- The officer’s face expressed complete stupefaction.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - It was my turn to stare in stupefaction.
— from The Man Who Lived in a Shoe by Henry James Forman - Ralph looked after him, but neither moved nor spoke for some time: when he broke what almost seemed the silence of stupefaction, by a scornful laugh.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - Conceive my horror and stupefaction!—I was treading a hard, dusty, shingly road of granite.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - I recovered at length, but into a state of stupefaction and despair, that threatened me with the loss of my senses, and a mad house.
— from Memoirs of Fanny Hill by John Cleland
