Literary notes about passivity (AI summary)
In literature, the term "passivity" is deployed in a variety of contexts to evoke a state of inaction, submission, or even reflective repose. It is often contrasted with activity—in some works, a character’s inertness serves as a foil to the dynamic forces at play, suggesting both an internal struggle and a deliberate retreat from the world ([1], [2]). In other instances, passivity indicates a philosophical condition or a societal critique, where a collective unwillingness to act underscores cultural or political complacency ([3], [4], [5]). Authors also use passivity to animate complex characterizations: sometimes as a mark of resignation or exhaustion ([6], [7], [8]), and at other times as a strategic silence that reveals deeper, even magnetic, internal strength ([9], [10], [11]). This multiplicity of meanings underscores the nuanced role that passivity plays in enhancing thematic depth and character psychology across diverse literary works ([12], [13], [14]).
- Activity and passivity are two facts entirely different.
— from On the Philosophy of Discovery, Chapters Historical and Critical by William Whewell - Activity is the deliverer, just because it drives away passivity."
— from The Literature of Ecstasy by Albert Mordell - Another example indeed of the passivity which their fathers show when brought face to face with the invading foreigners!
— from Egypt (La Mort de Philae) by Pierre Loti - The passivity of this colony in receiving the present charter, in lieu of the first, is, in the opinion of some, the deepest stain upon its character.
— from Novanglus, and Massachusettensis or, Political Essays, Published in the Years 1774 and 1775, on the Principal Points of Controversy, between Great Britain and Her Colonies by Daniel Leonard - Their passivity is implied in the very idea of absolute power.
— from Considerations on Representative Government by John Stuart Mill - He fell into a trance-like state of passivity, his body and mind exhausted.
— from The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield Fisher - Her almost childish passivity was like a slow and heavy poison in his blood.
— from Sally Bishop: A Romance by E. Temple (Ernest Temple) Thurston - A wave of care-free passivity now seemed to inundate her.
— from Phantom Wires: A Novel by Arthur Stringer - He was not drunk, but in contrast to the gloomy passivity of the crowd seemed beside himself with excitement.
— from The possessed : by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - She sat still and let Tantripp put on her bonnet and shawl, a passivity which was unusual with her, for she liked to wait on herself.
— from Middlemarch by George Eliot - Her very passivity was her strength, the secret of her magnetism.
— from Complete Project Gutenberg John Galsworthy Works by John Galsworthy - But Spirit is not passive, or else the passivity can be momentary only; there is one spiritual substantial unity.
— from Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 1 (of 3) by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - Another dualism is that of activity and passivity in knowing.
— from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey - Hence, the substantial act is a principle of activity, and the potency a principle of passivity.
— from The Catholic World, Vol. 18, October, 1873, to March, 1874. A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science by Various
