Literary notes about state (AI summary)
The term "state" in literature is remarkably versatile, often serving as a fulcrum around which both literal and metaphorical meanings pivot. Authors use it to denote a condition or quality—be it of the body, mind, or circumstances—as seen when a character laments the “state in which he has put me” ([1]) or reflects upon a “state of hopeless destitution” ([2]), underscoring personal vulnerability. At the same time, "state" is deployed to signify broader political or social entities, such as in discussions of civil order or nationhood ([3], [4], [5]), thereby imbuing the term with a more structural, communal sense. Some writers even extend its use to articulate abstract conditions—be it moral decay (“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” [6]) or a condition of joy ([7])—demonstrating its capacity to capture both the tangible and intangible facets of human experience.
- See the state in which he has put me.”
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - Not more than a month before his wedding he was in a state of hopeless destitution.
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Like the civil state and the Christian religion, international law may be called a peace institution.
— from Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Essay by Immanuel Kant - Then carpenters, and smiths, and many other artisans, will be sharers in our little State, which is already beginning to grow? True.
— from The Republic by Plato - Although the State ranked only fifth in population, commercially it was the centre of the Union.
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. HORATIO.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - In the state of joy in which he then was, he was the most venerable of children.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
