Literary notes about fall (AI summary)
The term "fall" in literature is remarkably versatile, serving to illustrate both physical descent and metaphorical decline. In some passages, it conveys literal loss of balance or forceful collapse, as when characters wobble between standing and falling amidst turmoil ([1], [2]), or when objects, gestures, or even emotions fall—be it in a quiet, natural manner ([3], [4]) or with dramatic emphasis ([5]). Other texts use the word to denote moral or political decline, underscoring themes of decadence and ruin, such as the downfall of empires or characters spiraling into disgrace ([6], [7], [8], [9]). Sometimes fall describes a turning point or the inevitable cycle of change, as seen in the depiction of seasonal transitions ([10]) and in the fateful judgments that befall those in power ([11]).
- So they called him with greater earnestness; but he stood reeling and wavering as if he knew not whither he should stand or fall, or which way to go.
— from Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary White Rowlandson - Gass who by an accedental fall had so disabled himself that it was with much pain he could work in the canoes tho he could march with convenience.
— from The Journals of Lewis and Clark, 1804-1806 by William Clark and Meriwether Lewis - She sighed and let her pretty head fall into her two hands.
— from The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux - When the recluse saw this, she rose abruptly on her knees, flung aside her hair from her face, then let her thin flayed hands fall by her side.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - Have you admired the rapidity of my fall?
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Blessed is the man that is always fearful: but he that is hardened in mind shall fall into evil.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - This narrative of obscure and remote events is not foreign to the decline and fall of the Roman empire.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - Pardon, Caesar; Caesar, pardon: As low as to thy foot doth Cassius fall, To beg enfranchisement for Publius Cimber.
— from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare - Whose but his own? ingrate, he had of mee All he could have; I made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - Noted for its flaming crimson foliage in fall, as well as its red leaf stalks, flowers, and fruit, earlier.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook by Boy Scouts of America - All the rest he destroyed upon one pretence or another; and among them Aelius Sejanus, whose fall was attended with the ruin of many others.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius
