Obsessiveness
Ahab, Captainobsessed with whale. [Am. Lit.: Moby Dick]
obsessed with crippled son. [Nor. Lit.: Little Eyolf]
single-minded success addict. [Br. Lit.: Hard Times]
goldsmith who murders to regain what he created. [Ger. Opera: Hindemith, Cardillac, Westerman, 487]
“very principle of his life [was] the systematic exercise of revenge.” [Am. Lit.: The Scarlet Letter]
wrapped up in caring for her immaculate home, to the exclusion of all human relationships. [Am. Drama: Craig’s Wife in Hart, 191]
“everlastingly knitting” before the guillotine as heads fell. [Br. Lit.: A Tale of Two Cities]
compulsively thinks, talks, and writes about King Charles’s head. [Br. Lit.: Dickens David Copperfield in Brewer Dictionary, 520]
only goal in life becomes winning at cards. [Russ. Opera: Tchaikovsky, Queen of Spades, Westerman, 401]
personification of law’s inexorableness; relentlessly tracks down Valjean. [Fr. Lit.: Les Miserables]
could not think of anything but lover Wilson. [Br. Lit.: Humphry Clinker, Magill I, 394–397]
mysterious submarine captain who attempts vengeance against society. [Fr. Lit.: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]
neglects his business in unremitting effort to perfect a paper-making process. [Fr. Lit.: Balzac Lost Illusions in Magill II, 595]
determined at any cost to become Emperor. [Br. Lit.: I, Claudius]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.