Literary notes about Vilify (AI summary)
The term "vilify" in literature is consistently employed to denote the act of speaking ill of someone—often unfairly or with malicious intent. For instance, Webster critiques British Masons who malign figures exposing hidden agendas [1], while Ukers uses the word to contrast the negative portrayal of coffee users against the product’s own merits [2, 3]. In works of drama and personal conflict, such as in Dumas’s narrative where a character laments, "you really vilify me!" [4], and Burke’s portrayal of character defamation [5], the term underscores emotional betrayal and misrepresentation. Additionally, writers like Washington Irving [6] and Emerson [7] reflect on vilification as both a simplifying tactic in social criticism and as an intellectual vice, a view echoed by Shaw’s commentary on being misunderstood and maligned in discourse [8].
- Why in the face of all this should any British Masons take up the cudgels for the Illuminati and vilify Robison and Barruel for exposing them?
— from Secret societies and subversive movements by Nesta Helen Webster - Insensate they who, tasting not, yet vilify its use; For when they thirst and seek its help, God will the gift refuse.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - It was the favorite pastime of its friends to exaggerate coffee's merits; and of its enemies, to vilify its users.
— from All About Coffee by William H. Ukers - you really vilify me!” cried Olivain.
— from Twenty years after by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - It did not fully answer his end, to exaggerate her burdens, to depreciate her successes, and to vilify her character.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke - The former found it easier to exterminate than to civilize; the latter to vilify than to discriminate.
— from The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving - Let us not vilify but raise it to that standard.
— from Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ralph Waldo Emerson - Even you, who are a man, cannot say what you think without being misunderstood and vilified—yes: I admit it: I have had to vilify you.
— from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw