Literary notes about demand (AI summary)
The word "demand" in literature functions as a versatile tool that can convey personal insistence, economic necessity, authoritative command, or a collective call for justice. It is used to depict a character's forceful request for information or affirmation of rights, as seen when Leonora insists on knowing her destiny [1] or when an individual asserts a right they consider non-negotiable [2][3]. At the same time, "demand" captures impersonal or systemic forces—ranging from market dynamics in economic works [4][5] to the political pressures and societal expectations that drive historical change [6][7]—and even extends into epic narrative territory where demands signal the onset of conflict or call for restitution [8][9]. This multiplicity of usage underscores the term’s ability to merge the personal with the universal in literature.
- Wollen Sie, gnädige Signora?' 'Then,' said Leonora, in trembling accents, 'I demand to know if I shall find that which I seek.'
— from He by Andrew Lang and Walter Herries Pollock - This you alone can do; and I demand it of you as a right which you must not refuse.”
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - He appeared to demand of her something that no one else, as it were, had presumed to do.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James - The variations in the market price of such commodities, therefore, can arise only from some accidental variation in the demand.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - Coffee and tobacco were more in demand here than at Bandar Abbas, and metals were largely imported.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - But until then, a sense of justice, a wise self-love, impels us to demand a voice in his councils.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - Just as the agitation for woman's rights began in this country, Pauline Roland began in France a vigorous demand for her rights as a citizen.
— from History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I - The invasion of Gaul was preceded, and justified, by a formal demand of the princess Honoria, with a just and equal share of the Imperial patrimony.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Behold them who demand in war our wives for theirs!
— from The Aeneid of Virgil by Virgil
