Literary notes about stopped (AI summary)
The word “stopped” is employed in literature as a versatile marker of interruption that can signal both physical halts and emotional shifts. For example, in some narratives it describes a literal pause in movement—a character’s progress is interrupted by another’s intervention, as when a mother halts her son’s departure [1] or a carriage comes to an abrupt standstill [2, 3]. In other cases, “stopped” captures a sudden change in emotional or narrative momentum, such as when a character halts mid-action under the weight of overwhelming feelings [4, 5] or when dialogue pauses to emphasize tension or uncertainty in a conversation [6, 7]. Additionally, authors use the term to mark the transition in a scene or to punctuate a moment of decision, thereby heightening suspense or redefining the pace of the narrative [8, 9]. Overall, whether indicating a physical cessation or a moment of inner turmoil, “stopped” functions as an effective literary device to underscore pivotal turning points throughout a work [10, 11, 12].
- He was going to leave the room, when his mother stopped him with her hand upon his arm.
— from North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell - Half an hour had passed when the carriage stopped suddenly; the count had just pulled the silken check-string, which was fastened to Ali’s finger.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - At the end of half an hour or so the cab stopped.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - Then he stopped, for he felt the tears to be very near his eyes, and had no wish to let them fall in the presence of his satirical mentor.
— from Fathers and Sons by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev - She stopped suddenly, for she was choked by her sobs.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - " She stopped, and I kept silence on my side.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - "Stop a bit," said a Voice, and Adye stopped dead and his hand tightened on the revolver.
— from The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance by H. G. Wells - Then he stopped suddenly, and I heard a little whimper in the dark, and knew that Vixen had found me at last.
— from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling - To his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from six to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to twelve; then stopped.
— from A Christmas Carol in Prose; Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens - Winterbourne stopped, with a sort of horror, and, it must be added, with a sort of relief.
— from Daisy Miller: A Study by Henry James - He turned white, would have said something, but stopped; he dropped her hand, and his head sank on his breast.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Scheherazade, at this point, seeing that it was day, and knowing that the Sultan always rose very early to attend the council, stopped speaking.
— from The Arabian Nights Entertainments by Andrew Lang
