Literary notes about surrogate (AI summary)
In literature, the word "surrogate" is employed in a variety of contexts, functioning both literally and metaphorically. It can denote a legal or official role, such as an officer handling probate matters or a deputy in a court system—as seen when characters or authorities perform duties in a surrogate's office [1, 2, 3]. At times, it extends to characters who stand in for familial figures or act as stand‐ins for parental or mentor-like roles, deepening the emotional and symbolic landscape of a work [4, 5, 6]. Beyond these concrete uses, "surrogate" appears in more abstract discussions, where it substitutes for ideas or functions—illustrating, for instance, how a proxy element might represent a broader societal or thematic issue [7, 8]. Even within narrative settings that blend the mundane with the allegorical, such as Hardy’s work [9, 10], the term enriches literary discourse by drawing a parallel between the literal and figurative act of substitution.
- The partition was conducted amicably until the office of Surrogate was reached.
— from The History of Tammany HallSecond Edition by Gustavus Myers - A certified copy of Andre's will is in the office of the Surrogate of New York.
— from The Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, Vol. 1 (of 2) or, Illustrations, by Pen And Pencil, of the History, Biography, Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the War for Independence by Benson John Lossing - The will was offered for probate, and we all went to Philadelphia to attend the Surrogate Court.
— from Seek and Find; or, The Adventures of a Smart Boy by Oliver Optic - They, his surrogate family, knew that there was not just one blackness but despair had myriad blacker and bleaker hues.
— from Corpus of a Siam Mosquito by Steven David Justin Sills - Maybe he was a surrogate son for Bartlett.
— from Syndrome by Thomas Hoover - And as he stood for the father it seemed to him a certain fact that now a little girl should come to be the surrogate for his mother.
— from Sleep Walking and Moon Walking: A Medico-Literary Study by J. Sadger - Our stores of weapons and ammunition, as well as our subsidies to the warlike Masai, might be reckoned as a surrogate for a military budget.
— from Freeland: A Social Anticipation by Theodor Hertzka - That surrogate of an argument for theism which Kant seemed to offer in the implications of the Moral Law did not give what Jacobi wanted.
— from Prolegomena to the Study of Hegel's Philosophy, and Especially of His Logic by William Wallace - " On a dark night, a few days later, Oak came with mysterious steps from the surrogate's door, in Casterbridge.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy - " "But why? Come with me to-night, and go with me to-morrow to the surrogate's.
— from Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
