Literary notes about merciless (AI summary)
Authors use the word merciless to evoke a sense of unyielding brutality and cold indifference, whether describing human actions, natural forces, or abstract critiques. It intensifies physical cruelty—as in the depiction of brutal attacks or savage animals [1, 2, 3]—or emphasizes the harshness of judgment and societal conflict [4, 5, 6]. The term also marks the relentless nature of war, nature’s fury, and oppressive institutions [7, 8, 9, 10], while simultaneously enhancing the severity of criticism and introspection in literary discourse [11, 12, 13]. This layered application deepens the reader’s understanding of the inescapable and often destructive force behind characters’ actions and natural phenomena.
- Now, we were hunted by dogs, and overtaken and torn to pieces by their merciless fangs.
— from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass - The whip flashed out, here and there, on its merciless errands.
— from The call of the wild by Jack London - He was beset on either side by the merciless fangs of his erstwhile comrades.
— from White Fang by Jack London - The jokes were frightful, and merciless against him.
— from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - Merciless villain, peasant, ignorant Of lawful arms or martial discipline!
— from Tamburlaine the Great — Part 1 by Christopher Marlowe - My schoolfellows met me with spiteful and merciless jibes because I was not like any of them.
— from Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - By the time the depleted regiment had again reached the first open space they were receiving a fast and merciless fire.
— from The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane - How doth the fire rage, that merciless element, consuming in an instant whole cities?
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - “He saw that it was a merciless war between us--a war to the death.
— from The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - What town of any antiquity or note hath not been once, again and again, by the fury of this merciless element, defaced, ruinated, and left desolate?
— from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson - Second period The merciless criticism which greeted Sordello had a wholesome effect on Browning, as is shown in the better work of his second period.
— from English Literature by William J. Long - Volpone is a keen and merciless analysis of a man governed by an overwhelming love of money for its own sake.
— from English Literature by William J. Long - And even if you were right, if I really had determined on a vile action, is it not merciless on your part to speak to me like that?
— from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
