Literary notes about Stupefied (AI summary)
Writers employ "stupefied" to convey a sudden, overwhelming suspension of thought or action—a state that can border on both astonishment and despair. In literature, characters are often rendered motionless or unresponsive, their senses clouded by events too intense to immediately process. For instance, a character might be depicted as "utterly stupefied" while awaiting a significant revelation [1] or as being overwhelmed by a mix of wonder and disbelief, unable even to grasp their own heroic status [2]. The term also stretches to describe a physical dulling, as when a mind becomes so fatigued or bewildered that it ceases all clear thought [3], or when an emotional shock temporarily severs one's connection to reality [4]. Ultimately, "stupefied" functions as a powerful, versatile descriptor that encapsulates moments of both paralyzing awe and numbing shock [5, 6, 7].
- The landlady, utterly stupefied, was standing quietly with her hands folded waiting for Yaroslav Ilyitch's good pleasure.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Candide, all stupefied, could not yet very well realise how he was a hero.
— from Candide by Voltaire - I was thinking what could have caused his irresistible drowsiness, when I felt my brain becoming stupefied.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - Everything had turned out so differently from what he expected that he was stupefied with wonder.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Parent was stupefied, and stammered: “Your—your—child?
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - We stood motionless, and almost stupefied; yet nothing had been struck.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana - “Us!” repeated the Professor, as if stupefied.
— from The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton
