Literary notes about scorn (AI summary)
The term "scorn" is deployed in literature to convey deep-seated disdain, contempt, or dismissal, often reflecting a character’s inner emotional turmoil or social superiority. In many texts, it emerges as both an overt act of mockery and as a subtle internal sentiment. Authors use it to underscore a character's rejection of societal norms or to mark moments of personal defiance, as seen when a character refuses to accept mediocrity or control ([1], [2]). At times, scorn serves to highlight the isolation or derision a character endures, heightening dramatic conflict or moral judgment within the narrative ([3], [4]). Whether expressed in defiant dialogue or in the silent, burning look of disapproval, "scorn" enriches the interplay of power and emotion, reinforcing thematic tensions and deepening character development ([5], [6]).
- “The views which I am now going to acknowledge, must, infallibly, incur your displeasure;-yet I scorn all palliation.
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney - ’Tis true, indeed; so your daughter says: ‘Shall I,’ says she, ‘that have so oft encountered him with scorn, write to him that I love him?’ LEONATO.
— from Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare - She had enveloped both Will and Rosamond in her burning scorn, and it seemed to her as if Rosamond were burned out of her sight forever.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth. Descends.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Know ye not then said Satan, filled with scorn, Know ye not me?
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - He felt as if he had had dirt cast on him amidst shouts of scorn.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot
