Literary notes about person (AI summary)
The word "person" functions in literature as a flexible term, effortlessly moving between descriptions of physical individuality and abstract conceptualization. It is deployed to illustrate a character’s unique identity––for example, as an embodiment of inherent qualities or social status ([1], [2])––as well as to emphasize the personal and sometimes legal or moral implications of individual agency ([3], [4]). In dialogue, the term can carry emotional weight, revealing both admiration and derision, and it is often used to highlight contrasts between public persona and private self ([5], [6], [7]). Moreover, its usage spans from metaphysical discussions of self-awareness to practical considerations of social roles, thereby enriching the narrative perspective and emphasizing the multilayered nature of human existence ([8], [9]).
- He was likewise a person of great courage, and soon made himself so greatly feared among his people that they trembled in his presence.
— from The Memoirs of the Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Vol 1 (of 2) by Bernal Díaz del Castillo - His own person was the exact embodiment of his utilitarian character.
— from Moby Dick; Or, The Whale by Herman Melville - The person ending limits the meaning of the stem by pointing out the person of the subject.
— from A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges by George Martin Lane - The person making the affidavit signs his name at the bottom of it, and swears that the statements contained in it are true.
— from The New Gresham Encyclopedia. A to Amide by Various - “I’m surprised, Mrs. Beaumont,” cried Mr. Lovel, starting up, “that you can suffer a person under your roof to be treated so inhumanly.”
— from Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World by Fanny Burney - You ought to be ashamed, you absurd person, you senseless person!"
— from Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - “She’s a capital person for you to know.
— from The Portrait of a Lady — Volume 1 by Henry James - Thus play I in one person many people, And none contented.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Or, in other words, God as person, and man as person, are alike.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones