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Literary notes about Sympathetic (AI summary)

In literature, the term sympathetic is employed with varied nuances, ranging from a warm, compassionate character trait to a descriptor of aesthetic or even metaphysical connections. It often portrays characters as kind-hearted or understanding, as seen when a flawed individual is nonetheless described as having a great heart and being sympathetic [1], or when a face betrays an expression that comforts in grief [2, 3]. At the same time, authors use the term to evoke an inherent harmony or resonance—whether in describing a straightforward, exalted era [4] or in illustrating a tangible response between characters and objects, as in a delicate touch or a perceptive glance [5, 6]. Moreover, it stretches to abstract realms where ideas, values, or even natural phenomena are imbued with a sympathetic quality that binds elements together, as noted in discussions of magical connections or social nuances [7, 8]. Overall, sympathetic serves as an evocative bridge linking human emotion, social interaction, and the intricate interplay between the individual and the broader aesthetic or cultural world [9, 10].
  1. The cousin was ugly, and also a fool, but she had a great heart and was sympathetic.
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  2. "What has happened to upset him so?" "His son-in-law is dead," answered Mr. Audley, fixing his eyes upon Mrs. Plowson's sympathetic face.
    — from Lady Audley's Secret by M. E. Braddon
  3. Her eyes glowed with sympathetic understanding.
    — from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter
  4. This is the most straightforward and most sympathetic age that ever was.
    — from The Will to Power: An Attempted Transvaluation of All Values. Book I and II by Nietzsche
  5. He bent his head and felt with two sympathetic fingers the thin hair at the crown.
    — from Dubliners by James Joyce
  6. The old man glanced across to his wife, and a look expressive of sympathetic feeling started in the face of each.
    — from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman
  7. Contagious Magic THUS far we have been considering chiefly that branch of sympathetic magic which may be called homoeopathic or imitative.
    — from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
  8. The interest is sympathetic, socially and æsthetically sympathetic, rather than cognitive.
    — from How We Think by John Dewey
  9. It should be composed of past and be historic; be composed of future and be sympathetic.
    — from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
  10. But he knows that his cue is to be sympathetic.
    — from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw

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