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Literary notes about confidant (AI summary)

In literature the term “confidant” is used to denote a character who is entrusted with intimate secrets and personal truths, often serving as both a trusted friend and a discreet adviser. Writers employ the role to reveal hidden aspects of personality and to advance the narrative through carefully guarded disclosures, as when a nobleman’s trust is sought in matters of love or intrigue [1], [2]. The confidant not only stands as a symbol of loyalty and intimacy—as seen in characters chosen for their discreet counsel [3], [4]—but also frequently acts as a mediator or protector of private sorrows and schemes [5], [6]. This multifaceted role enriches the dramatic tension and emotional depth of the story, underscoring the complex interplay between secrecy and relational bonds [7], [8].
  1. “But you will not make me your confidant, Maximilian?” said the count, in a tone which showed how gladly he would have been admitted to the secret.
    — from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
  2. Here am I, the confidant of these two young people and the mediator of their affection.
    — from Emile by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  3. “I had only one confidant—my brother Mycroft.
    — from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  4. 'I must first catch my lawyer, and have a look at him, and see how I like him, before I make him into my confidant.
    — from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
  5. “We must make a confidant of M. de Sartine, and I will speak to him myself to-day without fail.”
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  6. And the prisoner chose him for his confidant (we have his own word for it) and he frightened him into consenting at last to act as a spy for him.
    — from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  7. I love—and I take you for my confidant.”
    — from The Works of Balzac: A linked index to all Project Gutenberg editions by Honoré de Balzac
  8. He used to make me his confidant now and then, and be terribly in the dumps.”
    — from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

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