Literary notes about dismal (AI summary)
The term "dismal" in literature is employed to evoke a pervasive sense of gloom, melancholy, or foreboding that colors both settings and characters. Authors often use it to describe oppressive atmospheres and bleak emotional states, as when a character’s inner resolve is matched by an equally somber external environment [1] or when an entire landscape is painted with a heavy, mournful brush [2]. At times, the word intensifies the terror of the natural world—a dark, foreboding night or a haunted, decrepit dwelling [3][4]—while in other instances it captures personal despair or the oppressive dullness of societal life [5][6]. This evocative adjective thus serves as a versatile tool to underscore themes of isolation, decay, and inevitable decline throughout literary works.
- Just at this point he met his soul’s sworn comrade, Joe Harper—hard-eyed, and with evidently a great and dismal purpose in his heart.
— from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Complete by Mark Twain - It was the first I ever see it growing, and it made the woods look solemn and dismal.
— from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - ‘This is a wild kind of place, Steerforth, is it not?’ ‘Dismal enough in the dark,’ he said: ‘and the sea roars as if it were hungry for us.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - XVI Clifford's Chamber NEVER had the old house appeared so dismal to poor Hepzibah as when she departed on that wretched errand.
— from The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne - How could there be such dismal failure within and such brilliant success outside?
— from My Reminiscences by Rabindranath Tagore - I've lost all my spirits and courage, and got into a dismal state of mind.
— from Work: A Story of Experience by Louisa May Alcott
