Literary notes about enable (AI summary)
The term "enable" in literature frequently functions as a bridge between means and ends, signifying that certain conditions, tools, or actions make other events or capabilities possible. It is used to indicate that an object, circumstance, or quality empowers a subject to perform a specific act or reach a particular state—for instance, revealing how a resource can allow one to dispense with constraints ([1]) or how physical or mental faculties equip a character to achieve a goal ([2], [3]). Similarly, it appears in varied contexts such as facilitating movement ([4], [5]), justifying decisions or actions in political and social spheres ([6], [7]), or even in enabling a transformation of appearance or talent ([8], [9]). In all these instances, "enable" encapsulates the idea that certain preconditions or enhancements yield new possibilities, underscoring a cause-and-effect relationship that is central to narrative progression and character development ([10], [11]).
- Here are the means which will enable you to dispense with one.
— from The History of a Crime by Victor Hugo - “I am so thankful to our ever-kind Heavenly Father for having so improved my eyes as to enable me to write at night.
— from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget - By dint of daily toil he earned enough to enable him to follow the college courses, and at last to enter the university.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Suppose we are looking at an artistically complete angel; we are always bothered by the idea that his wings are much too small to enable him to fly.
— from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross - The ascent is precipitous, but the path is cut into continual and short windings, which enable you to surmount the perpendicularity of the mountain.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - no very decided unwillingness to yield to a show of force, which the pretext of prudence would enable them to justify.
— from A Diplomat in Japan by Ernest Mason Satow - He might allow such freedom of the press and of discussion as would enable a public opinion to form and express itself on national affairs.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill - A mark made with the mixture on the forehead will enable any person to assume the figure of any animal he thinks of.
— from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston - "This little rectory CAN do no more than make Mr. Ferrars comfortable as a bachelor; it cannot enable him to marry.
— from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - That was sufficient to enable me to ascertain that she is in a position—preternatural, if one may so express it.”
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - ‘My love, no. Perseverance and strength of character will enable us to bear much worse things.’
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
