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Literary notes about subterfuge (AI summary)

In literature, "subterfuge" is routinely employed to denote acts of deception or evasive maneuvers ranging from feigned innocence to outright duplicity. It can represent a deliberate pretext or a cunning ruse designed to disguise true motives or obscure harmful intentions, as indicated by its use in reference [1]. At times, it manifests as a trivial ruse—almost playful or desperate in nature—as when characters use minor deceptions to navigate social or political obstacles ([2], [3]); in other instances, it takes on graver overtones, underpinning plots of betrayal and manipulation ([4], [5]). Moreover, authors have wryly noted the inherent dishonesty of such acts, employing the term to critique both personal and systemic evasion, whether on the battlefield ([6]), in romantic entanglements ([7], [8]), or in the broader machinations of power ([9], [10]). This multifaceted usage illustrates how subterfuge serves as a flexible literary tool to explore themes of truth, honor, and moral ambiguity.
  1. pretense, pretext; false plea &c 617; subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe; sham &c (deception) 545.
    — from Roget's Thesaurus by Peter Mark Roget
  2. Now Richard knew these industrious resolutions to be the veriest webs of subterfuge.
    — from The President: A Novel by Alfred Henry Lewis
  3. A stroke of luck and a little subterfuge got me out of this dilemma.
    — from The Memoirs of General Baron de Marbot by Marbot, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine-Marcelin, baron de
  4. Now, unless I am much mistaken, at the inquest to-day only one—at most, two persons were speaking the truth without reservation or subterfuge.”
    — from The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
  5. The prosecutor positively smiled at the “innocence of this subterfuge.”
    — from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  6. As a subterfuge the so-called Army of England solemnly paraded, marched, and counter-marched.
    — from The Story of Napoleon by Harold Wheeler
  7. " "But why?" Driven to subterfuge, she stammered— "Your father is a parson, and your mother wouldn' like you to marry such as me.
    — from Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman by Thomas Hardy
  8. And I'd got to dance with the other Miss Gunn," said Godfrey, glad of the subterfuge his uncle had suggested to him.
    — from Silas Marner by George Eliot
  9. And for this subterfuge, the world honors that unscrupulous politician!”
    — from Polly and Her Friends Abroad by Lillian Elizabeth Roy
  10. " But such a subterfuge betrays both a weak mind and a weak cause.
    — from The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ by Kersey Graves

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