Literary notes about blush (AI summary)
In literature, "blush" emerges as a versatile device to express a range of emotional states from modesty and embarrassment to the tender glow of passion. Authors use it to reveal a character's inner conflict or secret sentiment—a hesitant admission of vulnerability, as when a protagonist dares not meet another’s gaze without a flush [1] or when a “maiden blush” hints at the onset of intimate revelations [2]. In other passages, the term becomes an aesthetic metaphor, comparing the natural bloom of a rosy dawn or a delicate flower’s hue to the warmth of human feeling [3][4]. Such usage enriches narrative tone, imbuing moments with both physical immediacy and symbolic depth.
- For the future I shall be able to look her in the face without a blush.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - 2):— "Thou know'st the mask of night is on my face; Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek, For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night.
— from The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin - You will look lightly upon the three springs and regard the blush of the peach and the green of the willow as of no avail.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao - Yonder, by ever-brimming goblet’s rim, the warm waves blush like wine.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville
