Literary notes about resigned (AI summary)
In literature, “resigned” is employed both as a descriptor of inward acceptance and as an expression of formal relinquishment. Writers often use it to capture the moment when characters yield to their fates or duties. For instance, in several works, a character’s gaze or tone is marked by a calm, quiet submission to circumstances beyond their control [1, 2, 3]. At times, the word underlines the internal surrender of hope and ambition, as when individuals admit defeat or embrace melancholy inevitability [4, 5, 6]. In more official contexts, “resigned” describes the act of stepping down from a role or office, highlighting the transition from power to a state of reflective detachment [7, 8, 9]. In this way, authors harness the nuances of “resigned” to enrich their narratives—whether detailing the subdued dignity of personal loss or the pragmatic decisions in the face of broader social or institutional change [10, 11, 12].
- The man and the woman approached the dying man and looked at him with calm, resigned eyes.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - When he came back to Rosamond, she had already thrown herself on the sofa, in resigned fatigue.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - It had a long nose, and floppy ears that hung down, and a resigned expression of countenance.
— from Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World by Mark Twain - Believing that the view I took of the situation was a right one, I had resigned myself like a reasonable being, and not like a disappointed lover.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - I am resigned to my fate now, so I don’t think I’ll go out for fear I’ll get unresigned again.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - Another sigh came from the window—quite a resigned sigh.
— from This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald - He remained with this administration until December, 1824, when he resigned.
— from Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z by Cerfberr and Christophe - He'll be all the better for it." "'Walter Blythe, who has been teaching for the past two years at Lowbridge, has resigned,'" read Susan.
— from Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery - My transfer carried me to the company of Captain McCall, who resigned from the army after the Mexican war and settled in Philadelphia.
— from Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete by Ulysses S. Grant - She has helped me to earn a living when my old friends were quite resigned to seeing me starve." "Nonsense!
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - The whig ministers it seems had resigned, but somehow or other had not entirely and completely gone out.
— from Sybil, Or, The Two Nations by Earl of Beaconsfield Benjamin Disraeli - Grasping this instantly, he resigned himself.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky