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Literary notes about mollify (AI summary)

The term "mollify" is typically employed by authors to describe the act of calming or appeasing intense emotions or conflicts. In literary contexts it often denotes efforts to ease anger, reduce tension, or alleviate distress. For instance, a character might try to mollify another’s fierce anger through gentle words or conciliatory actions, as seen when a tender gesture is used to soothe a temper [1] or when protocol is adjusted to pacify an irate individual [2]. At times, the word carries an almost metaphorical weight, suggesting that the passage of time can mollify deep-seated grief or bitterness [3]. Even in broader sociopolitical scenarios, it is invoked as actions undertaken to moderate public unrest or diffuse crisis by addressing fears directly [4]. Overall, its versatile usage spans the personal to the political, highlighting its enduring role in conveying acts of softening or calming in literature.
  1. Mr. Chillip was fluttered again, by the extreme severity of my aunt’s manner; so he made her a little bow and gave her a little smile, to mollify her.
    — from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  2. But if he should give them notice at Lady Day, Arthur and I must move heaven and earth to mollify him.
    — from Adam Bede by George Eliot
  3. If he had died, this was a natural casualty; and, whatever grief it might occasion, time no doubt would mollify and abate it.
    — from St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century by William Godwin
  4. The Federal Secretary of War has issued a statement to mollify the panic.
    — from A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital by J. B. (John Beauchamp) Jones

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