Literary notes about unflinching (AI summary)
The word "unflinching" has been employed in literature as a powerful descriptor of resolute, unwavering spirit in the face of adversity. In works like Goethe’s prose [1], the term evokes a cold, determined confrontation with mortality, while Dostoyevsky’s characters [2, 3] exhibit an unyielding focus that underlines their psychological strength. Similarly, it encapsulates unwavering bravery and steadfastness in moments of crisis, as illustrated by Chopin’s comparison to facing a cannon’s mouth [4] and Tagore’s portrayal of a woman treading through fire [5]. The term also emerges in historical and analytical contexts, from depicting the tenacity of Roman patriots [6] and military steadfastness in Thucydides [7] to embodying a calm endurance in the underwater explorations of Verne [8, 9] and as a metaphor for rigorous fact-finding in sociological inquiry [10]. Each usage, including those in the reflective musings of Wharton [11], Hardy [12], and Twain [13], enriches the text by highlighting a character’s or situation’s indomitable and resolute nature.
- With cold, unflinching hand I knock at the brazen portals of Death.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - “Yes, I certainly said so,” he continued with sudden animation, fixing an unflinching glance on his questioner.
— from The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - He kept looking straight at Stavrogin with firm and unflinching expression.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Before her pencil he sat rigid and unflinching, as he had faced the cannon's mouth in days gone by.
— from The Awakening, and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin - She waded barefooted through fire, as it were, with slow unflinching steps, and nobody knew how much she was scorched.
— from The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories by Rabindranath Tagore - ‘He was a brave soldier, a firm intrepid patriot, and an unflinching enemy of the enemies of Rome, but as a general no match for Hannibal.’—Ihne.
— from Helps to Latin Translation at Sight by Edmund Luce - The rest also did their best, but were not able to land, owing to the difficulty of the ground and the unflinching tenacity of the Athenians.
— from The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides - When his time was up, he yielded his equipment to another and reentered the foul air on board, always calm, unflinching, and uncomplaining.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas: An Underwater Tour of the World by Jules Verne - When the time came, he gave up his apparatus to another and returned to the vitiated air on board, calm, unflinching, unmurmuring.
— from Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne - It demands a national policy based on an unflinching examination of the facts.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - " Mrs. Fisher continued to probe her embarrassment with an unflinching eye.
— from The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton - “But as hard, keen, and unflinching as fair—rather more so.
— from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy - Could you have remained in those ranks and gone down to your death in that unflinching way?
— from What Is Man? and Other Essays by Mark Twain
