Literary notes about Void (AI summary)
The word "void" in literature functions as a powerful symbol of emptiness and absence that spans both physical and metaphysical dimensions. It can evoke the raw, primordial state of creation, as seen when the earth is described as "void" before the advent of life [1, 2, 3]. In other contexts, "void" paints an image of a desolate landscape or an internal emotional barrenness, illustrating the profound sense of isolation or loss—whether it is the cold expanse of outer space [4, 5, 6] or the bleak depths of a human heart left unfulfilled [7, 8, 9, 10]. Moreover, writers often employ the term to denote something nullified or lacking effect, as when legal or formal matters are rendered without force [11, 12, 13]. This multifaceted use of "void" underscores its versatility in expressing not only an absence of matter or meaning in the physical world but also a metaphorical emptiness that resonates with themes of existential despair, disconnection, or the ineffable vastness of the universe [14, 15, 16, 17].
- And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters. 1:3.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - Thus, in Genesis, we see that in the beginning "the world was without form, and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep."
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - Faster and ever faster the universe rushed by, a hurry of whirling motes at last, speeding silently into the void.
— from The Country of the Blind, and Other Stories by H. G. Wells - "An immeasurable void"—Space—is not an entity, is no thing, and therefore cannot "exist," neither is any explanation for it needed.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - The only exception to this extraordinary landscape, was the Peak of Scartaris, which seemed lost in the great void of the heavens.
— from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne - But the void within my heart refused, even thus, to be filled.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - Then, for weeks, all was void, and black, and silent, and Nothing became the universe.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - She was going away, to deny him, to leave an unendurable emptiness in him, a void that he could not bear.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - The whole world seemed pale and void of its original meaning.
— from A Room with a View by E. M. Forster - I should say this last will was void," added Mr. Vincy, feeling that this expression put the thing in the true light.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - This reasoning [332] seems doubtful, even to show that the contract is not voidable, but has no bearing on the argument that it is void.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes - The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
— from The Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian - How vast and void seemed the desolate premises!
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - I asked, gazing into the dark, motionless void.
— from The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle - What a void in the absence of the being who, by herself alone fills the world!
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - For all of room and space we call the void Must both through centre and non-centre yield Alike to weights where'er their motions tend.
— from On the Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus
