Literary notes about Writhing (AI summary)
The word "writhing" is often used to intensify descriptions of both physical and emotional turmoil, transforming simple movement into an image of relentless, almost inhuman contortion. In some works, it vividly captures the agony of a body in distress, as characters convulse in unbearable pain ([1], [2]), or struggle with overwhelming internal forces ([3], [4]). In other contexts, the term evokes the serpentine movement of nature or animate objects—for instance, tentacles or dust swirling in a chaotic dance ([5], [6])—underscoring a mood of existential unrest. Whether describing the grim reality of brutal punishment or the eerie motion of a natural phenomenon ([7], [8]), "writhing" becomes a powerful literary device that conveys both the physical and symbolic expressions of suffering and chaos.
- This second attack was much more violent than the first, and he had slipped from the couch to the ground, where he was writhing in agony.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - I could not have endured the horrid screeching as the stake drove home; the plunging of writhing form, and lips of bloody foam.
— from Dracula by Bram Stoker - There he sat, all alone, doubling himself up and writhing this way and that, in the throes of unappeasable laughter.
— from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain - As soon as she caught sight of the elder she began shrieking and writhing as though in the pains of childbirth.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The lightning flashed and showed the birches writhing.
— from The Gay Cockade by Temple Bailey - Brandishing its victim like a feather, one lone tentacle was writhing in the air.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - I found Bettina lying in her father’s bed writhing with fearful convulsions, and surrounded by the whole family.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - The wriggling writhing worms will now eat you at the ships, far from your parents, when the dogs have glutted themselves upon you.
— from The Iliad by Homer
