Literary notes about obscured (AI summary)
The word "obscured" in literature serves as a versatile term that conveys not only the literal act of blocking light or vision but also metaphorically denotes a loss of clarity or understanding. In some passages it describes physical conditions—a fog that conceals the sky ([1]), clouds that veil the sun ([2], [3], [4]), or a shadow that covers a doorway ([5])—enhancing the atmosphere and mood. In other instances, it signifies the clouding of knowledge or judgment, as when the brightness of an intellect or a truth is diminished ([6], [7], [8]). Moreover, the term is employed to critique historical distortion or misinterpretation, suggesting that significant achievements or insights have been hidden from view over time ([9], [10], [11]). This dual use, bridging the tangible and the abstract, allows writers to evoke both sensory imagery and deeper philosophical ideas.
- At seven o'clock the day was sufficiently advanced, but a very thick sea fog obscured our view, and the best spy glasses could not pierce it.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - It was as the day went on that the clouds gathered, and the brightness of the morning became obscured.
— from Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens - Immense whirlwinds of vapor obscured the sky, through which glimmered a few stars.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - The vault above became obscured, lightning flashed from the heavy masses, followed instantaneously by crashing thunder; then the big rain fell.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - A dark figure obscured the lighted doorway of the manager's hut, vanished, then, a second or so after, the doorway itself vanished, too.
— from Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - Did a brighter light burn in the depths of that obscured mind?
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - Perhaps a spark would be sufficient to revive his obscured intellect, to rekindle his dulled soul.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne - [Pg 112] knowing how much his knowledge is obscured by the passions.
— from Pascal's Pensées by Blaise Pascal - As a general result, the historical sense has succeeded in grasping the spirit of Indian antiquity, long obscured by native misinterpretation.
— from A History of Sanskrit Literature by Arthur Anthony Macdonell - Racial differences have, to be sure, disappeared or been obscured, but individual differences remain.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Accordingly, the humanistic movement was crossed and obscured by another, specifically religious and ostensibly more Christian than the Church.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana
