Literary notes about Transfixed (AI summary)
The word "transfixed" is employed to evoke a sense of immobilized captivation that can be either emotional or physical. In some passages, it conveys a state of awe, shock, or horror whereby a character is so overwhelmed that they stand motionless, as seen when someone is struck with a sudden, almost otherworldly fascination ([1], [2], [3]). In other contexts, it is used quite literally to indicate being impaled or secured by an object—a spear or arrow becoming lodged, for instance, as a metaphor for inescapable fate ([4], [5], [6]). This duality enriches the narrative, allowing the term to bridge the gap between a metaphorical paralysis of the spirit and tangible physical fixation.
- The organ gave one startled trump, and went silent; the choir stood transfixed.
— from England, My England by D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence - But I stood transfixed with stupor and fright: “Schopenhauer was no longer laughing!
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - For a moment, transfixed in amazement, anger, and alarm President Ham remained seated.
— from Billy and the Big Stick by Richard Harding Davis - The child was, at his desire, placed on his bosom: as he wept over it, it was transfixed by an arrow.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Ch’ih shot an arrow which transfixed the tree, and then jumped on to a current of air to go and fetch the arrow back.
— from Myths and Legends of China by E. T. C. Werner - The spear had not severed its spine, but merely transfixed its great neck muscles.
— from Beyond the Black River by Robert E. (Robert Ervin) Howard
