Literary notes about oblivious (AI summary)
The term "oblivious" frequently marks a moment when a character is so ensnared in internal preoccupations that the outside world fades into insignificance. It is used to signify absent-minded absorption, as when a character becomes unaware of surroundings while overcome by emotion or thought ([1], [2], [3]). In some portrayals, it underscores deep concentration or emotional infatuation, allowing an individual’s inner life to eclipse external happenings ([4], [5]). Other instances leverage the term to evoke a deliberate retreat from societal norms or looming realities, thereby accentuating the character's isolation or singular focus ([6], [7]). At times, the usage also hints at an ironic detachment, where the individual's self-absorption belies the urgent or dramatic events unfolding around them ([8], [9]). Overall, this lexical choice enriches the narrative by layering moments of introspection with subtle commentary on the disjunction between inner experience and outer circumstance ([10], [11], [12]).
- “Elle l’a voulu” he felt a stab at his heart and again he became oblivious of everything, even of the fact that he had gone into the cottage.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Oblivious to the sunshine and everything but his thoughts, Montague lay in bed, and sought to wrestle with the truth he had heard the night before.
— from The Blower of Bubbles by Beverley Baxter - For hours he reads on, oblivious of all surroundings, until parental attention is drawn toward him by the unusual silence.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - In the second, he was oblivious to everything and everybody save Frances.
— from The Last Million: How They Invaded France—and England by Ian Hay - Meanwhile Bartleby sat in his hermitage, oblivious to every thing but his own peculiar business there.
— from Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street by Herman Melville - All great men have been noted for their power of concentration which makes them oblivious of everything outside their aim.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - Altogether I was lost in amazement, and sat staring at her, quite oblivious, I am afraid, of the laws of politeness.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - He was absorbed in his grievance and was oblivious of the boy’s presence, as he always had been.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - In the first, the public, he is shown oblivious of self; as modest in the display of his energies, as earnest in their exercise.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - Marilla found Anne face downward on her bed, crying bitterly, quite oblivious of muddy boots on a clean counterpane.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - Vronsky, standing beside Oblonsky, watched the carriages and the passengers, totally oblivious of his mother.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - he asked, oblivious of the fact that the prince had not showed the least sign of moving.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
