Literary notes about severity (AI summary)
In literature, the term "severity" is employed to convey a range of meanings from strict moral judgment and measured self-discipline to the harshness of natural phenomena and the rigidity of legal penalties. Philosophical works invoke it to describe the self-imposed sternness of a culture or individual—for instance, the exalted self-regard that deems any laxity as a moral failing ([1]) and a moral régime marked by extreme strictness ([2]). Novelists and dramatists similarly harness "severity" both in character portrayals, as when a glance or tone hints at a disapproving firmness or austere beauty ([3], [4], [5]), and in describing the unforgiving character of nature or law, such as the relentless harshness of winter or a rigorously administered punishment ([6], [7]). This versatility in usage enables writers to explore complex themes of power, control, and the interplay between discipline and empathy.
- What is more offensive or more thoroughly calculated to alienate, than giving any hint of the exalted severity with which we treat ourselves?
— from The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - The moral régime would be one of extreme severity.
— from On Love by Stendhal - "There is some woman asking for you," he said, looking at me with peculiar severity.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - She attempted to look reserved; her face put on a sculptural severity.
— from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy - ‘You should learn not to make personal remarks,’ Alice said with some severity; ‘it’s very rude.’
— from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - That season was now gone; and winter had set in with sudden and unusual severity.
— from The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Theft may be called an attempt to permanently deprive a man of his property, which is punished with the same severity whether successful or not.
— from The Common Law by Oliver Wendell Holmes
