Cruelty (redirected from mercilessness)

Cruelty

See also Brutality.

Achren

mean, spiteful enchantress of Spiral Castle. [Children’s Lit.: The Castle of Llyr]

Allan, Barbara

spurned her dying sweetheart because of a fancied slight. [Br. Balladry: Benét, 78]

Blackbeard

nickname of pirate, Edward Teach (d. 1718). [Am. Hist.: Hart, 84]

Bligh, Captain

tyrannical master of the ship Bounty. [Am. Lit.: Mutiny on the Bounty]

Bumble, Mr.

abusive beadle, mistreats Oliver and other waifs. [Br. Lit.: Oliver Twist]

bull

symbolizes cruelty in Picasso’s Guernica. [Span. Art.: Mercatante, 99]

Cipolla

magician who hypnotizes and brutally humiliates members of the audience. [Ger. Lit.: Mario and the Magician in Benét, 636]

Conchis

his psychological experiments cause repeated emotion-al anguish among his subjects. [Br. Lit.: John Fowles The Magus in Weiss, 279]

Creakle, Mr.

headmaster at Salem House; enjoys whipping boys. [Br. Lit.: David Copperfield]

cuscuta

symbol of cruelty. [Flower Symbolism; Jobes, 399]

Diocletian

Roman emperor (284–305); instituted general persecutions of Christians. [Rom. Hist.: EB, 5: 805–807]

Guilbert, Brian de Bois

dissolute and cruel commander of the Knights Templars. [Br. Lit.: Ivanhoe]

Job’s comforters

maliciously torment Job while ostensibly attempting to comfort him. [O.T.: Job]

Legree, Simon

harsh taskmaster; slavetrader. [Am. Lit.: Uncle Tom’s Cabin]

leopard

represents meanness, sin, and the devil. [Animal Symbolism: Mercatante, 56]

Margaret

of Anjou hard, vicious, strong-minded, imperious woman. [Br. Lit.: II Henry VI]

Mezentius

Etrurian king put his subjects to death by binding them to dead men and letting them starve. [Rom. Legend: Benét, 664]

Murdstone, Edward

harsh and cruel husband of widow Copperfield. [Br. Lit.: David Copperfield]

painted bird, the

painted by peasants and released, it is rejected and killed by its original flock. [Pol. Tradition: Weiss, 345]

Slout, Mr.

punished Oliver for asking for more gruel. [Br. Lit.: Oliver Twist]

Squeers, Wackford

brutal, abusive pedagogue; starves and maltreats urchins. [Br. Lit.: Nicholas Nickleby]

Totenkopfverbande

tough Death’s Head units maintaining concentration camps in Nazi Germany. [Ger. Hist.: Shirer, 375]

Vlad the Impaler

(c. 980–1015) prince of Walachia; called Dracula; ruled barbarously. [Eur. Hist.: NCE, 2907]