Literary notes about dissolute (AI summary)
In literature, the term dissolute often characterizes characters whose lives are marked by moral decay and unchecked indulgence, evoking images of debauchery and self-destruction. It conveys the idea of a life abandoned to excess and wastefulness, whether in the transformation of a once-respectable noble into a wayward libertine [1] or in the depiction of rulers and societal elites who steer their realms into ruin [2, 3, 4]. Authors use the word not only to set a tone of licentious abandon but also to underscore a broader commentary on the conflicts between societal order and personal desire, as seen in the portrayal of lords, soldiers, and other prominent figures who succumb to vice [5, 6, 7].
- From this date a marked alteration took place in the outward demeanor of the dissolute young Baron Frederick Von Metzengerstein.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - The question naturally arises why so debauched and dissolute a king should prefer such tight-laced Christians to be the peculiar objects of his mercy.
— from Works of John Bunyan — Volume 01 by John Bunyan - But his health was broken by the tortures of the gout, and his dissolute reign was spent in the alternative of sickness and pleasure.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - his dissolute reign was spent in the alternative of sickness and pleasure.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The rough river ran,— Over the brink of it, Picture it,—think of it, Dissolute Man!
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Alexander Vronsky, in spite of the dissolute life, and in especial the drunken habits, for which he was notorious, was quite one of the court circle.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - He was a morose, savage-hearted, bad man; idle and dissolute in his habits; cruel and ferocious in his disposition.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens
