Literary notes about consternation (AI summary)
Consternation in literature is employed to evoke a vivid emotional response—ranging from sheer terror and disbelief to ironic dismay—often capturing the instant when characters confront overwhelming or unexpected circumstances. It is used to illustrate both personal vulnerability and collective societal anxiety, as when a character faces physical threat and unimaginable horror ([1]) or when a seemingly trivial situation escalates into a state of discomfiture that reverberates among onlookers ([2]). At other moments, authors harness the word to underscore the complex interplay between shock and resignation in the face of fate or authority ([3],[4]), thereby deepening our understanding of human reaction under duress and the nuanced layers of emotional turmoil.
- This renewed my consternation; and I did not know what to think of these white people, though I very much feared they would kill and eat me.
— from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African by Equiano - The wonder and consternation with which Joe stopped on the threshold of his bite and stared at me, were too evident to escape my sister's observation.
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - Incapable of flight or resistance, they expected their fate in silent consternation.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Already distressed at all points and in all quarters, after what had now happened, they were seized by a fear and consternation quite without example.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
