Literary notes about hurt (AI summary)
The term "hurt" is employed in literature to evoke a range of meanings, from physical pain and injury to emotional suffering and social consequence. In some texts, it is used literally, as when physical wounds are described in the throes of battle or accident ([1], [2]), while in others, it conveys the subtleties of emotional pain or wounded pride ([3], [4]). The word often serves as a pivot for moral reflection and the careful balancing of intent and consequence, as seen when characters avoid causing unnecessary harm ([5], [6]) or when broader social and political actions risk inflicting harm ([7], [8]). Moreover, in dialogues and introspective passages, "hurt" embodies both the tangible impact of actions and the intangible sting of personal loss, thus enriching narratives with its layered connotations ([9], [10]).
- He shrieked again the cry of the mortally hurt as Dan dragged him too late from before the open door.
— from The Best Short Stories of 1917, and the Yearbook of the American Short Story - The sword in his hands flashed like quicksilver into the huddle of our fleeing enemies; and at every flash there came the scream of a man hurt.
— from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson - It hurt my feelings so deeply, and so influenced my behaviour, that I never made a friend of any teacher in the school.
— from My Life — Volume 1 by Richard Wagner - “You’ve hurt me—hurt me,” said her heart.
— from Bliss, and other stories by Katherine Mansfield - “I do not think Flora would hurt a fly.”
— from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - ‘I think, mama,’ said Kate hesitating, and remarking Newman’s averted face, ‘you would hurt his feelings if you offered it.’
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - If the state be not hurt by this, neither am I harmed, and if the state be hurt we should not be wrathful with him who hurt it.
— from The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus by Emperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius - These elements are, a hurt to some assignable person or persons on the one hand, and a demand for punishment on the other.
— from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill - “I hurt you just now, so forgive me and have pity on me, forgive a scoundrel....
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - “If he was really hurt, he wouldn't make such a fuss,” said Bobbie, still trembling with fury; “he's not a coward!”
— from The Railway Children by E. Nesbit