Literary notes about slit (AI summary)
The word "slit" in literature functions as a vivid, multifunctional term that enhances both physical and metaphorical imagery. It is frequently employed to depict narrow openings or crevices—from a shaft of light streaming under a door ([1]) to a small gap in a shutter or wall ([2], [3]). At the same time, "slit" powerfully conveys violence or dismemberment, as seen when it describes the brutal modification of a character’s facial features ([4]) or the savage, cutting action of fire and knife in battle scenes ([5], [6]). Moreover, writers use the term to articulate delicate details in clothing and settings, whether referring to the discreet opening in a garment ([7]) or a carefully engineered aperture in mechanical or scientific contexts ([8], [9]). Even in more metaphorical usage, "slit" is a tool for illustrating internal pain or transformation, as in the imagery of a soul being cut open ([10]). This versatility allows "slit" to evoke a range of responses from shock and horror to curiosity and wonder, proving its effectiveness as a literary device across genres and eras.
- There was a slit of light under his wife's door.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence - They both approached the window, and through a slit in the shutter they saw Bonacieux talking with a man in a cloak.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - But at the corner of the public-house was an alley, a mere slit, dividing it from the next building.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - He died in prison in 1734, after having had his nose slit and ears cropped for his crimes; see below, l. 365.
— from The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems by Alexander Pope - It was furiously slit and slashed by the knifelike fire from the rifles.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane - Picking up the knife from the ground whereon Jude had flung it, she slipped it into the gash, and slit the windpipe.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - Explained by some as = stomacher; by others as = petticoat, or the slit or opening in those garments.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott - "I pasted letters," he says, "on a revolving drum, and determined at what rate they could be read aloud as they passed by a slit in a screen."
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - 36 . Such little squares of material, inserted into a slit or seam, to prevent its tearing, are called gussets.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - “Those innocent eyes slit my soul up like a razor,” he used to say afterwards, with his loathsome snigger.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
