Literary notes about Transgress (AI summary)
The word "transgress" is used to signal the act of exceeding or violating established norms, whether they be moral, legal, or natural. It appears in a variety of contexts, from the breach of sacred commandments in religious texts ([1], [2]) and epic poetry such as Milton’s ([3], [4]) to the criticism of societal and legal boundaries in works by Shelley and Dostoyevsky ([5], [6], [7]). At times, the term carries a tone of reproach for overstepping divine or natural limits, while in other contexts it even hints at everyday deviations made with a touch of irony ([8]). This versatile usage underlines its literary function as a marker of both profound and prosaic acts of violation.
- In his commandments they shall feast, and they shall be ready upon earth when need is, and when their time is come they shall not transgress his word.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - And Moses said to them: Why transgress you the word of the Lord, which shall not succeed prosperously with you? 14:42.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Rather how hast thou yeelded to transgress The strict forbiddance, how to violate The sacred Fruit forbidd’n!
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - Rather, how hast thou yielded to transgress The strict forbiddance, how to violate The sacred fruit forbidden!
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - As the rules of order and pressure of laws were lost, some began with hesitation and wonder to transgress the accustomed uses of society.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - The second category all transgress the law; they are destroyers or disposed to destruction according to their capacities.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - You, too, have transgressed... have had the strength to transgress.
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - In my greatest Excesses I do not transgress more than the other half Pound; which, for my Healths sake, I do the first Monday in every Month.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
