Literary notes about Vicious (AI summary)
The term "vicious" is deployed in literature with remarkable versatility, serving both as a descriptor of moral degradation and as a metaphorical device to depict self-perpetuating, negative cycles. It can denote actions or habits that trap individuals in destructive patterns, such as a "vicious circle" that is difficult to escape ([1], [2], [3]), while also characterizing individuals as having debased or corrupt natures ([4], [5], [6]). At times, it is used in a more literal sense to portray brutality or uncontrolled behavior—ranging from a "vicious spasm of laughter" that captures a sudden, almost animalistic intensity ([7]) to describing physical aggression in contexts like a "vicious judo chop" ([8]). In its various applications, the word intensifies the portrayal of both moral and physical shortcomings, contributing to the depth and dynamism of the narrative.
- It is a vicious circle from which we must break a way out.”
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - That may seem like a vicious circle in statement, but it will bear examination.
— from The Art of Public Speaking by Dale Carnegie and J. Berg Esenwein - Sometimes a man may be drawn into a vicious circle, so that, having once entered it, he ceases to be himself.”
— from Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol - And they will also learn that they can never be free, for they are weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born wicked and rebellious.
— from The Grand Inquisitor by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Was man, indeed, at once so powerful, so virtuous and magnificent, yet so vicious and base?
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Tom Hervey, who died t'other day, though a vicious man, was one of the genteelest men that ever lived.'
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - Then another vicious spasm of laughter seized her.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - Kennon drove a vicious judo chop to the junction of the Lani’s neck and shoulder.
— from The Lani People by Jesse F. Bone
