Literary notes about Vile (AI summary)
Throughout literature the term "vile" emerges as a forceful descriptor of moral decay, physical repugnance, and the inherent baseness of characters and actions. In some works it is used to directly condemn a person’s character—for instance, as a sharp rebuke directed at a woman's behavior [1] or to denounce a leader’s corrupt conduct [2]—while in others it underscores the degradation of actions or environments, such as an admission of a “vile heart” or service that defiles one's duty [3]. The word not only highlights the distasteful or loathsome nature of the subject but also, at times, serves as a self-critical acknowledgment of one's own moral shortcomings [4]. From the biting insults of early narratives to the somber reflections in later novels, "vile" remains a versatile term loaded with contempt and moral judgment [5, 6, 7].
- She answered that she would not tell him, for that it was neither a just thing nor a seemly; whereupon, 'Vile woman that thou art!' cried he. '
— from The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio by Giovanni Boccaccio - Why are we reputed as beasts, and counted vile before you?
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - and I broke a glass to-day and drank ‘to my vile heart.’
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - He who knoweth himself well is vile in his own sight; neither regardeth he the praises of men.
— from The Imitation of Christ by à Kempis Thomas - O, tell me, Friar, tell me, In what vile part of this anatomy Doth my name lodge?
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Like a vile trichina, like a germ of the plague infecting whole kingdoms, so I contaminated all this earth, so happy and sinless before my coming.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Not till La Ricaneuse stands before her with bare, black arms akimbo, uttering a volley of vile abuse and of brazen impudence.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin
