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Literary notes about hypocrisy (AI summary)

Literary works have long employed hypocrisy as a means to criticize the gap between outward appearances and inner realities. Voltaire-inspired writings, for instance, use irony to expose religious hypocrisy—where public piety masks private failings [1]—while classical authors like Cicero dissect hypocrisy as intertwined with issues of injustice [2]. In novels, hypocrisy is portrayed not only as unintentional self-deception that can eventually become a self-fulfilling trait [3] but also as a deliberate mask in social interactions, as seen in dramatic works that strive for candor free of pretense [4]. Shakespeare’s invocation of hypocrisy against nefarious forces further reinforces its role as a potent moral indictment [5].
  1. Writings inspired by Voltaire’s ironic scoffing at religious hypocrisy.
    — from Heath's Modern Language Series: The Spanish American Reader by Ernesto Nelson
  2. Injustice, active and passive, i , 23 , 28 ; never expedient, iii , 84 ; of hypocrisy, i , 41 .
    — from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero
  3. If they were hypocrites they did not know it, and their hypocrisy had every chance of setting and of becoming true.
    — from A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
  4. Let us be frank in this matter before we go on with our play; so that we may enjoy it without hypocrisy.
    — from Man and Superman: A Comedy and a Philosophy by Bernard Shaw
  5. It is hypocrisy against the devil: They that mean virtuously and yet do so, The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt heaven.
    — from Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare

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