Literary notes about debauched (AI summary)
Literary authors use "debauched" to evoke a sense of moral decay and corruption, often painting characters whose outward appearances hide a dissolute inner life. Some writers describe a refined or austere exterior concealing a debauched mind, suggesting that social respectability may mask internal vice [1]. In narrative and dialogue, the term is applied to individuals—whether debauched youths, kings, or servants—whose indulgence in licentious behavior marks them as lacking moral discipline or integrity [2, 3, 4]. Additionally, the word is employed to critique societal institutions and cultural values, implying that widespread debauchery can lead to political decay or social injustice [5, 6]. Overall, "debauched" in literature functions as both a moral indictment and a vivid descriptor of characters consumed by vice.
- (Or:) “An austere countenance sometimes covers a debauched mind.”
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - He turned off his men for maids, because “men servants are generally impudent, lazy, debauched, or dishonest.”
— from The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete by T. Smollett - But he spoke this of a debauched and dissolute youth.
— from Cicero's Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero - But he has sunk into a drunken debauched creature.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - It is their failure, together with the failure of the leaders of Germany in other walks of life, that debauched Germany and led to her defeat.
— from Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Volume I by Various - So Page 61 scandalously debauched a people as that of Venice is to be met with nowhere else.
— from The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 01 (of 12) by Edmund Burke
