Literary notes about mute (AI summary)
In literature, the word "mute" serves as both a literal and symbolic signifier of silence. Authors employ it to denote characters rendered speechless by shock or grief, as when a man is struck mute by an overwhelming encounter [1] or left wordless in astonishment at unfolding events [2]. At times, "mute" conveys not only physical silence but also an emotional inability to express inner turmoil, as seen in heartfelt farewells or suppressed despair [3], [4]. In other contexts, it enhances the atmosphere—transforming objects or settings into impersonal witnesses of history or tragedy [5], [6]—while also functioning in academic discourse to describe phonetic or grammatical features [7], [8]. This versatility enables "mute" to both deepen character portrayals and enrich the narrative tone across various genres.
- Cedric, who had been struck mute by the sudden appearance of his banished son, now rushed forward, as if to separate him from Rowena.
— from Ivanhoe: A Romance by Walter Scott - He stepped back from the keyhole; drew himself up to his full height; and looked from one to another of the three bystanders, in mute astonishment.
— from Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens - Her hands remained clasped; her lips mute; her eyes fixed; and that little shoe, thus gazed at, broke the heart of any one who knew her history.
— from Notre-Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo - She longed to bid me hasten my return; a thousand conflicting emotions rendered her mute as she bade me a tearful, silent farewell.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Could a statue of marble have been more impassive and more mute?
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Here and there a farmhouse stood far back among the fields, mute and cold as a grave-stone.
— from Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton - An unvoiced mute before a voiced consonant became voiced.
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane - Many verbs in -ere form their perfect stem by adding the suffix -s- to a root, which generally ends in a mute: as, Perfect Stem.
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane
