Literary notes about domineering (AI summary)
In literature, the term "domineering" is often used to characterize figures who assert control or impose their will over others, whether as tyrannical rulers, strict parents, or overbearing social figures. Authors evoke a sense of oppressive authority and harshness by describing characters whose behavior is marked by an inflexible need to dominate—be it a father whose rigidity harms familial bonds [1, 2] or a leader whose imperious manner defines his rule [3]. At times the word also highlights the transformation of a character who gradually becomes self-important and dictatorial [4, 5], underscoring the destructive nature of unchecked power. This descriptor paints a vivid picture of individuals who, through their commanding presence, create tensions that drive both interpersonal conflict and broader societal commentary [6, 7].
- As a father he was, naturally, a failure,—hard, domineering, unyielding.
— from Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W. E. B. Du Bois - My mother was an ill-tempered woman, and ruled my father, who was a confoundedly severe, domineering man.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie - The friar orders, deluded by their transient triumph and secure in their pride of place, became more arrogant, more domineering than ever.
— from The Social Cancer: A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal - But the old domineering self-confidence returned at once.
— from Marguerite De Roberval: A Romance of the Days of Jacques Cartier by Thomas Guthrie Marquis - He is no longer 'infirm of purpose': he becomes domineering, even brutal, or he becomes a cool pitiless hypocrite.
— from Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth by A. C. Bradley - This is sure to produce an insolent and domineering manner towards you.
— from The Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer; Counsels and Maxims by Arthur Schopenhauer - ‘I knew Mrs. Linton’s nature to be headstrong and domineering,’ cried I: ‘but I didn’t know that you wished to foster her fierce temper!
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
