Literary notes about asylum (AI summary)
The term "asylum" in literature is richly polysemous, functioning as both a literal institution and a metaphorical refuge. In some works, it denotes a physical place—a mental institution or foundling home—imbued with connotations of confinement and societal neglect ([1], [2], [3]), while in others it symbolizes a sanctuary, a haven where individuals or groups seek protection from emotional, political, or spiritual turmoil ([4], [5], [6]). Moreover, certain texts imbue the word with mythic and sacred overtones, portraying the asylum as a consecrated space or a symbol of ascetic retreat and safety, as seen in ancient epics and religious narratives ([7], [8], [9]). Even within a single narrative tradition, such as in works where the pains of orphanhood intertwine with notions of institutional care ([10], [11], [12]), the dual nature of "asylum" emerges as both a marker of isolation and a potential site of solace.
- Peter the Hermit would now be sent to a lunatic asylum.
— from The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy by William James - The honeymoon over, I learned my mistake; she was only mad, and shut up in a lunatic asylum.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - He was healed at Heilsberg, then locked up in an insane asylum at Stuttgart.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Cerfberr and Christophe - O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
— from Common Sense by Thomas Paine - Let him prepare an asylum for them in Russia!”
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - In the asylum they treated me as though I were a king.
— from Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson - At other places the asylum was decked with Brahmanas learned in the Atharvan Veda.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 - Thus addressed by him, the gods with the Grandsire’s leave (came away), and with Narayana at their head proceeded to the asylum of Dadhicha.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 - And the king saw that the asylum was like unto the region of Brahman.
— from The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 - But there is so little scope for the imagination in an asylum—only just in the other orphans.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - I don’t suppose you ever were an orphan in an asylum, so you can’t possibly understand what it is like.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - They were good, you know—the asylum people.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
