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Literary notes about damn (AI summary)

The word "damn" serves as a multifaceted tool in literature, functioning both as an intensifier and an expression of raw emotion. It can heighten a character’s frustration or moral indignation, as when it punctuates a sudden outburst of anger or disbelief ([1], [2], [3]). In the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, it sometimes appears as a forceful curse or a marker of condemnation ([4], [5], [6]). Meanwhile, later writers employ it in a more colloquial, even ironic, manner to capture the immediacy of everyday speech and the burdens of modern life ([7], [8], [9]). Overall, the deployment of "damn" across various texts enriches the narrative tone, providing both emotional depth and a candid reflection of the human condition ([10], [11], [12]).
  1. "Damn it all, this was interesting, this was a point of likeness!"
    — from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  2. Oh, damn it all,' I cried, 'make the fellow shut up.
    — from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
  3. Damn it, I bought the place with the furniture!"
    — from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
  4. By some damn'd hand was robbed and ta'en away.
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  5. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not; Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury 113 and damnèd incest.
    — from Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
  6. I'll tell thee what: Thou'rt damn'd as black-nay, nothing is so black-
    — from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
  7. "Damn yer ol' hide," yelled Jimmie, madly.
    — from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
  8. ‘Damn you, Tim Linkinwater, how dare you talk about dying?’ roared the twins by one impulse, and blowing their old noses violently.
    — from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  9. Go git yer sister an' we'll put deh boots on her feets!" "Dey won't fit her now, yeh damn fool," said the man.
    — from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane
  10. There was no offence against decorum in all this; nothing to condemn, to damn.
    — from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 by Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb
  11. O, I were damn'd beneath all depth in hell, But that I did proceed upon just grounds To this extremity.
    — from Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare
  12. And if you don't want to, don't, damn you!
    — from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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