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Literary notes about deception (AI summary)

The term "deception" appears in literature as a versatile motif that both complicates character relationships and questions reality itself. In philosophical works, authors like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche ponder self-deception and the seductive distortions of truth, suggesting that our perceptions are often clouded by inner desires or misguided impressions ([1], [2]). In narrative fiction, deception serves as a catalyst for plot and moral inquiry, from Dickens’s portrayal of systematic deceit to Conan Doyle’s examinations of disguise and betrayal ([3], [4]). It also emerges as a commentary on social and personal integrity, as seen in texts where characters grapple with the consequences of false appearances or the inevitable masks they adopt in life ([5], [6]).
  1. [pg 257] which casts an enchanting glamour over the past and distant, and presents them to us in so fair a light by means of self-deception.
    — from The World as Will and Idea (Vol. 1 of 3) by Arthur Schopenhauer
  2. Is the conformity to law which we observe perhaps only a deception?
    — from The Twilight of the Idols; or, How to Philosophize with the Hammer. The Antichrist by Nietzsche
  3. To repay my confidence with systematic deception, for her sake, and quit me for her!
    — from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
  4. But what is the object of this deep deception, Mr. Holmes?”
    — from The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  5. I do not like concealment and deception.
    — from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. Life is given now for pain and terror, and that’s the deception.
    — from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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