Literary notes about mitigation (AI summary)
Writers employ "mitigation" to convey a loosening or softening of severity in both tangible and abstract realms. In legal and judicial discourse, for instance, it designates the reduction of punishment or penalty, as seen when a character’s sentence is lessened due to favorable circumstances [1, 2, 3]. Meanwhile, in narratives with a medical or emotional focus, the word suggests a relief from acute distress or pain—the tempering of both physical symptoms and a burdensome fate [4, 5, 6]. Beyond individual suffering, some authors even extend the concept to broader societal or environmental conditions, where mitigation can signal a moderating influence on harsh, overarching systems [7, 8, 9]. This multifaceted application underscores the term's power to encapsulate the gradual easing of diverse intensities of harm.
- His conduct at the time of the murder has been put in a favourable light, and I imagine that he too may reckon on some mitigation of his sentence.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - To obtain a mitigation of his sentence in this respect, he addressed a letter
— from The Life of George Washington: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions by John Marshall - How can you say you don’t want a mitigation of sentence?
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - At last a mitigation of the patient's most urgent symptoms (acute pain is one of its accompaniments) liberated me, and I set out homeward.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - He devoted his great medical knowledge and experience particularly to the cure or mitigation of cancer.
— from The Ethics of DietA Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh Eating by Howard Williams - What must I do, said I, to obtain a mitigation of the present sufferings of the two teachers?
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe - —H. C.] The severe and lasting winter is spoken of by Ibn Folzán and other old writers in terms that seem to point to a modern mitigation of climate.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano - Probably these humane precautions were a mitigation of an earlier custom of flinging the scapegoat into the sea to drown.
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer - The amalgamation of races demands it—the mitigation of human ugliness demands it—the affinity of contrasts assures it.
— from Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
