Literary notes about paralyze (AI summary)
In literature, the word "paralyze" is often employed as a vivid metaphor that extends beyond physical immobilization to encapsulate the stifling of thought, resistance, or emotion. For example, Dewey uses it to show how even a mere doubt can paralyze inquiry, halting the progress of thought ([1]). Twain and Conan Doyle apply the term in more physical contexts—using paralysis as a tactical maneuver to incapacitate enemies or opponents ([2], [3]), while Dumas portrays it as a calculated strategy to crush resistance ([4]). Meanwhile, Poe and Griffis illustrate how paralyzing forces, whether fear or the impact of foreign ideas, can undermine the individual spirit, leaving one rendered helpless ([5], [6], [7]). Brontë succinctly captures the lethal finality of such a force in the stark pairing of dread and immobilization ([8]).
- Let us look and see if these traits are found. Taken merely as a doubt, an idea would paralyze inquiry.
— from How We Think by John Dewey - The knights were temporarily down, but if I would keep them so I must just simply paralyze them—nothing short of that would answer.
— from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain - If its appearance did not frighten its victim to death, at least it would paralyze the resistance which might be offered.”
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - “At length, one evening my enemy resolved to paralyze the resistance he could not conquer.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Their number, I say, would have prevented the bewildering and unreasoning terror which I have imagined to paralyze the single man.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe - Indeed, the entrance of Chinese philosophical and abstract ideas seemed to paralyze the Japanese imagination.
— from The Religions of Japan, from the Dawn of History to the Era of Méiji by William Elliot Griffis - Their number, I say, would have prevented the bewildering and unreasoning terror which I have imagined to paralyze the single man.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 1 by Edgar Allan Poe - You envenom and you paralyze."
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë
