Literary notes about miserable (AI summary)
The term "miserable" is used to evoke a profound sense of desolation and despair across diverse literary works. Authors employ it to describe both internal emotional suffering and the external conditions that contribute to an overall bleak state—for instance, a forlorn, downtrodden appearance [1] or a character’s own admission of being a "miserable wretch" [2]. In other cases it renders environments oppressive and uninviting, such as the stark misery of a debtor’s prison [3] or the public disgrace that amplifies personal anguish [4]. Whether characterizing individuals caught in internal torment or settings steeped in social decay, "miserable" enriches the narrative, imbuing it with a palpable sense of despair and vulnerability [5, 6].
- Altogether, the appearance of the individual was forlorn and miserable.
— from The Last of the Mohicans; A narrative of 1757 by James Fenimore Cooper - I, a miserable wretch, haunted by a curse that shut up every avenue to enjoyment.
— from Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - The poor side of a debtor’s prison is, as its name imports, that in which the most miserable and abject class of debtors are confined.
— from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens - But neither here seek I, no nor in Heaven To dwell, unless by mastering Heaven's Supreme; Nor hope to be myself less miserable
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - The happiness was only a gleam, which departed and left him thoroughly miserable.
— from The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - In the second, be a man, and shake off a miserable passion, which will enervate and destroy you.
— from The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
