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]).
- "Damn it all, this was interesting, this was a point of likeness!"
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Oh, damn it all,' I cried, 'make the fellow shut up.
— from The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan - Damn it, I bought the place with the furniture!"
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - By some damn'd hand was robbed and ta'en away.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - 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 - 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 - "Damn yer ol' hide," yelled Jimmie, madly.
— from Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane - ‘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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - And if you don't want to, don't, damn you!
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky