Literary works employ resentment as a multi-layered emotion that fuels both personal anguish and wider social or political strife. In some narratives, it represents an inward, almost purgative force—an introspective reckoning with past harm that transforms quiet sorrow into active defiance [1, 2, 3]. In history-inspired writings, resentment emerges as a collective sentiment that influences the tides of leadership and power struggles, shaping events with a palpable bitterness [4, 5, 6]. Meanwhile, in domestic and social contexts, it is depicted as a subtle undercurrent in interpersonal dynamics, revealing delicate conflicts that lie beneath genteel civility [7, 8, 9], and even sparking a potent, almost purifying, self-reflection on the nature of suffering [10, 11].