Literary notes about downhearted (AI summary)
The term "downhearted" is frequently used in literature to vividly evoke a state of dejection or melancholy that characters experience in varied circumstances. Authors employ it to not only describe an internal sense of defeat or weariness—as when a character feels emotionally overwhelmed by life’s hardships ([1], [2], [3])—but also to introduce moments of gentle reassurance in dialogue, urging someone not to succumb to despair ([4], [5], [6]). In many narratives, this adjective enriches the emotional landscape by contrasting transient sadness with the resilience of the human spirit, whether in personal loss, strained relationships, or the grim realities of war ([7], [8], [9]). Its versatility allows writers to seamlessly merge psychological depth with character development, making it a powerful tool to highlight both vulnerability and strength ([10], [11]).
- As for me, I reckoned a body might as well give it up, it all looked so blue and I was so downhearted; but he wouldn’t.
— from Tom Sawyer, Detective by Mark Twain - Tom was downhearted, but tried hard not to show it.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete by Mark Twain - We returned to New York on Saturday night very much downhearted.
— from Pitching in a Pinch; or, Baseball from the Inside by Christy Mathewson - "You've no cause to be downhearted, my son.
— from Christopher and the Clockmakers by Sara Ware Bassett - Don’t you be downhearted; we shall do it yet.”
— from Nic Revel: A White Slave's Adventures in Alligator Land by George Manville Fenn - Don't be downhearted, if you don't see, at first, the way to do a thing.
— from Everybody's Book of Luck by Anonymous - When you sit in your tent the night before the battle, and think of home and your wife and children, you feel pretty sick and downhearted.
— from America To-day, Observations and Reflections by William Archer - Next day he was put into harness again and that evening he was very downhearted indeed.
— from The Aesop for Children by Aesop - I was mighty downhearted; so I made up my mind I wouldn’t ever go anear that house again, because I reckoned I was to blame, somehow.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - He got up from the table and went away downhearted, with his face in his jacket sleeve.
— from True to His Home: A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin by Hezekiah Butterworth - One night, towards the middle of February, she felt very downhearted: almost as if she could not struggle on much longer.
— from Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles by Wood, Henry, Mrs.
