Literary notes about restrained (AI summary)
In literature the term "restrained" serves a dual purpose, capturing both the internal struggle of emotion and the external imposition of control. Authors employ it to illustrate characters who consciously hold back their feelings—whether it is the suppression of anger or laughter in delicate, high-stakes moments [1, 2, 3, 4]—or to denote physical or societal limitations that curb human action [5, 6, 7]. This careful management of passion versus propriety enriches narrative tension and depth, as characters navigate a landscape where personal impulses are often in conflict with the expectations and constraints imposed on them [8, 9, 10].
- Anger and indignation, restrained by the reserve I was compelled to adopt for fear of losing the object of my ardent love, made me tremble all over.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - At the word “father” the unhappy husband fixed his gaze on me, but I restrained my laughter with considerable difficulty.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - This naivete of expectation drove me to fury, but I restrained myself.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I felt sorely urged to weep; but conscious how unseasonable such a manifestation would be, I restrained it.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - He tried to get upon his feet again, but the old man still restrained him, gazing at him with increasing perturbation as he went on.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The lieutenant after having seized the mountain restrained his (men) from battle.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - The freedom of love and marriage was restrained among the Romans by natural and civil impediments.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - He closed the door behind their backs with restrained violence, turned the key, shot the bolt.
— from The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad - My heart leapt, but I restrained myself.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova - It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.
— from The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton and John Jay and James Madison