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Literary notes about Violence (AI summary)

The term “violence” in literature is employed in diverse ways to evoke both tangible and abstract forms of force. In some works, it describes direct physical acts—ranging from the sudden, disruptive grasp of a character as in the dramatic halt by Hawkeye [1] to the destructive force of storms that overthrow nature’s calm [2]. At other times, it is used metaphorically to suggest moral or societal upheavals, where disruptive actions against established orders or passions create internal and communal strife [3, 4]. Authors also extend its reach to encapsulate the relentless drive behind political and social control, as when modern governments are critiqued for maintaining a “monopoly of violence” [5]. Thus, violence in literature serves not only as a descriptor of physical conflict or natural fury but also as a symbol for transformative power and the potential for both external and internal disorder.
  1. “Hold,” cried Hawkeye, seizing Duncan by the arm, and detaining him by violence; “you know not the craft of the imp.
    — from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper
  2. it rained, hailed, Snowed & blowed with Great Violence the greater portion of the day.
    — from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis
  3. They suspended violence, and shrunk from treaty.
    — from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
  4. O admirable purification of the soul!—a theurgy in which the violence of an impure envy has more influence than the entreaty of purity and holiness.
    — from The City of God, Volume I by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine
  5. The governments of the modern world are jealous of their own monopoly of violence.
    — from Psychological Warfare by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

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