Literary notes about mortifying (AI summary)
The term "mortifying" in literature is often deployed to evoke a profound sense of humiliation, personal failure, or degradation, transforming moments of social or internal crisis into vivid emotional experiences. Writers use it to heighten a character’s vulnerability, emphasizing not just embarrassment but also the pain of personal inadequacy or moral conflict—whether it be the sting of unreciprocated pride as in [1] and [2] or the bitter resignation in the face of inevitable defeat as seen in [3] and [4]. In some narratives, it even extends to a broader commentary on human nature and the suffering inherent in self-discipline, as when characters endure acts of self-denial or physical hardship ([5], [6]). Thus, "mortifying" becomes a multifaceted device, enriching texts by capturing the raw intersections of shame, pride, and the human condition ([7], [8]).
- It was very mortifying to bear with the insolence of such a vicious and ill-bred, imperious rascal.
— from Of the Capture of Ticonderoga: His Captivity and Treatment by the British by Ethan Allen - “Rather mortifying to our pride, I grant,” replied Macallan.
— from The King's Own by Frederick Marryat - He would look no one in the face; perhaps defeat was particularly mortifying for him.
— from A Room with a View by E. M. Forster - Soon, however, he forgot these mortifying failures.
— from Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne - [ The Ascetics (as early as the second century) made a public profession of mortifying their bodies, and of abstaining from the use of flesh and wine.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - I do not know a more mortifying thing than to be conscious of a foregone delight, with a total oblivion of the person and manner which conveyed it.
— from The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 by Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb - “Udolpho was written by Mrs. Radcliffe,” said Catherine, with some hesitation, from the fear of mortifying him.
— from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - But he was too genuinely delighted, and that was mortifying.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
