Literary notes about agent (AI summary)
The term "agent" in literature is multifaceted, often designating an intermediary who acts on behalf of someone else or something greater. In some works, an agent is portrayed as a tangible representative carrying out official or commercial duties, as seen when a governor or tenant assumes that role [1][2][3]. In contrast, other passages employ the term more abstractly, suggesting that an agent may symbolize the underlying force or causality behind events, whether supernatural, moral, or psychological [4][5][6]. Additionally, certain texts explore the duality of the agent as both a servant of external authority and a free moral being, highlighting the tension between self-interest and duty [7][8]. This wide-ranging use underscores the term’s ability to evoke both concrete function and metaphorical significance in literary discourse.
- He was succeeded as agent by Governor McMinn, of Tennessee.
— from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney - “James came into contact with this fellow Hayes, because the man was a tenant of mine, and James acted as agent.
— from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle - And so they went and told the agent that they were ready to make the agreement.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair - Whether the efficacy of a sacred object is represented in an abstract form in the mind or is attributed to some personal agent does not really matter.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - It is but a result—the effect of the usual causal agent when this happens to work in a certain particular and assignable way.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - Contrast has also been held to be an independent agent in association.
— from The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1 (of 2) by William James - And what’s more its all from your liberality, your own providing, as you’re the master of the house and not I, and I’m only, so to say, your agent.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - To be means for the achieving of present tendencies, to be "between" the agent and his end, to be of interest, are different names for the same thing.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
