Literary notes about imposed (AI summary)
The word imposed is deployed in varied contexts to denote burdens, restrictions, or conditions that are forcefully laid upon individuals or groups, be it by external authority or self-inflicted necessity. In religious and historical narratives, it frequently signals divine duties or official decrees—as when false apostles or kings set conditions upon others [1, 2] or when conquerors are held to the laws of war [3]. Political and economic texts use it to describe levies or taxes, encapsulating the inevitability of state control and fiscal obligation [4, 5, 6]. In literature, imposed also conveys the weight of self-discipline and the internalization of societal expectations, as characters wrestle with responsibilities they either select or submit to [7, 8]. Whether referring to the tangible imposition of physical restraints, the metaphorical yoke of social custom, or the deliberate acceptance of duty, the term operates as a versatile linguistic tool that enriches narrative tension and thematic depth [9, 10].
- 2 Corinthians Chapter 11 He is forced to commend himself and his labours, lest the Corinthians should be imposed upon by the false apostles.
— from The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Complete - "Tributes".—Akin to laws are the tributes decreed and imposed by kings and conquerors of old.
— from The Danish History, Books I-IX by Grammaticus Saxo - Constantinople had been taken by storm; and no restraints, except those of religion and humanity, were imposed on the conquerors by the laws of war.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The same year King Edward abolished the Danegeld which King Ethelred imposed.
— from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - To supply the extravagance of future years, new and exorbitant taxes were imposed upon the people, and those too on the necessaries of life.
— from The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius - All taxes, they pretend, fall ultimately upon the rent of land, and ought, therefore, to be imposed equally upon the fund which must finally pay them.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - All things considered, my reason imposed silence upon my former prejudice, which still pleaded in his favor.
— from The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau — Complete by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - From that self-imposed exile I came back, as I had hoped, prayed, believed I should come back—a changed man.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - He formed the siege of Constantinople; and, in a personal conference with the emperor, Simeon imposed the conditions of peace.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - The power and policy of Charlemagne annihilated an enemy, and imposed a master.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
