In literature, “painful” is employed as a richly ambiguous term that connotes both physical affliction and deep emotional unease. It appears when describing tangible suffering—a wound that “can never quite heal” [1] or a beating heart that refuses to rest [2]—and also when conveying the inner torment of regret or the burden of desire [3]. The word is used to evoke a spectrum of distress, from the demoralizing end of an evening’s entertainment [4] and the tragic spectacle of human decay [5] to the slow, creeping realization of inescapable fate [6]. In each context, “painful” deepens the reader’s understanding of characters’ experiences by linking external hardships with internal, often inexpressible, anguish.