Literary notes about uncongenial (AI summary)
In literature, uncongenial is used as a richly evocative adjective that conveys a sense of discord or misalignment between a subject and its environment, task, or companion. Writers employ it to highlight the disparity between inherent qualities and unsuitable circumstances—for instance, contrasting a character's delicate nature with rigid or hostile surroundings [1, 2], or underscoring the weariness stemming from tasks and occupation that simply do not suit one's temperament [3, 4, 5]. The term also captures interpersonal incompatibilities, reflecting relationships or companions that are at odds with each other's dispositions [6, 7, 8]. Thus, uncongenial becomes a versatile literary device that deepens the portrayal of internal conflict and external adversity.
- Her primal forces burst, like straws, The bonds of uncongenial laws.
— from The Victories of Love, and Other Poems by Coventry Patmore - I should hate to live in uncongenial surroundings.
— from The Lady of the Basement Flat by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs. - It was after several months of the most uncongenial toil that she finally gained recognition in "Cymbria."
— from Famous Prima Donnas by Lewis Clinton Strang - You may be forced to drudge at uncongenial toil for a time, but emancipate yourself as soon as possible.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden - Jude by this time wished he was out of such an uncongenial atmosphere; but he ordered the beer, which was promptly brought.
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - They were so dissimilar in taste, so uncongenial; and I really think he did not love her!" " He had no other motive, at all events.
— from The Ordeal: A Mountain Romance of Tennessee by Mary Noailles Murfree - If a man has a good wife, no matter how uncongenial, he can't get rid of her unless he is a brute; and I didn't happen to like that sort of man."
— from The Bell in the Fog and Other Stories by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton - I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe
