Literary notes about dead (AI summary)
In literature the word "dead" functions in a variety of ways, serving both as a literal marker of mortality and as a tool for evoking metaphorical states of inertia, loss, or legacy. It appears in dramatic battle scenes where death is sudden and final ([1]), as well as in historical narratives where influence lingers even after death ([2]). Authors employ the term to underline the melancholy of forgotten souls or lost loves ([3]), and sometimes with a touch of irony that reflects on the absurdity of life and death ([4], [5]). The adjective also deepens the emotional landscape, suggesting that what is "dead" may continue to affect the living, whether through the spectral presence of a departed spirit ([6], [7]) or in expressions that comment on the finality of time and memory ([8], [9]).
- It flew true as an arrow and piercing the poor devil's heart laid him dead upon the arena.
— from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs - Upon Marcus Cato's counsel, for example, the Third Punic War was undertaken, and in its conduct his influence was dominant, even after he was dead.
— from De Officiis by Marcus Tullius Cicero - The sweetness of forgotten things clung to them—the far-off, fond imaginings of those long-dead lovers.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - "They are all dead, so it doesn't matter," replied the Scarecrow.
— from The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum - What a pretty little gentleman sitting on the box, God strike me dead!
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - But, Arabella, when I am dead, you'll see my spirit flitting up and down here among these!"
— from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy - “‘Oh, no, the voices of the dead Sound like the distant torrent’s fall,’” promptly counter-quoted Anne, pointing solemnly to the box.
— from Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - The living perceive the infinite; the definitive permits itself to be seen only by the dead.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - We were friends once, Alan." "Don't speak about those days, Dorian: they are dead.
— from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
