Literary note (auto-generated)
The word "spurn" has been employed across literature as a versatile term encapsulating rejection, disdain, or deliberate refusal. In works such as Austen’s Emma [1] and Brontë’s Wuthering Heights [2], it conveys a refusal of assistance or pity that underscores a character’s pride or emotional detachment. At the same time, in Shelley’s Frankenstein [3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] the term deepens its impact by expressing the profound sorrow of a creature rejected by its creator, evoking themes of alienation and existential despair. Meanwhile, in the varied usages by Robert Burns [9, 10, 11, 12] and Thomas Carlyle [13, 14], "spurn" navigates expressions of contempt or deliberate dismissal in both personal and societal contexts. Even in works like those of Dickens [15, 16] and Dante [17], the word resonates as a powerful marker of separation and repudiation, affirming its multifaceted role in exploring human relationships and moral judgments in literature.
- “I will answer for it, that mine thinks herself full as clever, and would spurn any body's assistance.”
— from Emma by Jane Austen - If I pitied you for crying and looking so very frightened, you should spurn such pity.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - they spurn and hate me.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - They spurn and hate me.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - They spurn and hate me.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - My fathers have fallen to right it; Those fathers would spurn their degenerate son, That name should he scoffingly slight it.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - As thy day grows warm and high, Life's meridian flaming nigh, Dost thou spurn the humble vale?
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - If thou uncommon merit hast, Yet spurn'd at Fortune's door, man; A look of pity hither cast, For Matthew was a poor man.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - And I shall spurn as vilest dust
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - We must know the province of it, and confine it there; and even spurn it back, when it wishes to get farther.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle - We need not spurn it, as we step on it!—Let the Hero rest.
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle - ‘Your brother’s widow and her orphan child spurn the shelter of your roof, and shun you with disgust and loathing.
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - Is there no way to rob them of further triumph, and spurn their mercy and compassion?
— from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens - And he: ‘Though every hair thou from me shred 100 I will not tell thee, nor my face turn round; No, though a thousand times thou spurn my head.’
— from The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: The Inferno by Dante Alighieri