Sneer

In popular culture

• In Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë used the sneer—as perceived by the novel's narrator, the housekeeper Ellen Dean ("Nelly")—to epitomize the personality of Heathcliff, the lead character.'My amiable lady!' he interrupted, with an almost diabolical sneer on his face. 'Where is she - my amiable lady?' (Chapter 2)|'Have you been listening at the door, Edgar?' asked the mistress, in a tone particularly calculated to provoke her husband, implying both carelessness and contempt of his irritation. Heathcliff, who had raised his eyes at the former speech, gave a sneering laugh at the latter (Chapter 11)|'Yes, she's dead!' I answered, checking my sobs and drying my cheeks. 'Gone to heaven, I hope; where we may, every one, join her, if we take due warning and leave our evil ways to follow good!'

'Did she take due warning, then?' asked Heathcliff, attempting a sneer. 'Did she die like a saint? (Chapter 16)|'Heathcliff did not glance my way, and I gazed up, and contemplated his features almost as confidently as if they had been turned to stone. His forehead, that I once thought so manly, and that I now think so diabolical, was shaded with a heavy cloud; his basilisk eyes were nearly quenched by sleeplessness, and weeping, perhaps, for the lashes were wet then: his lips devoid of their ferocious sneer, and sealed in an expression of unspeakable sadness. Had it been another, I would have covered my face in the presence of such grief. In his case, I was gratified; and, ignoble as it seems to insult a fallen enemy, I couldn't miss this chance of sticking in a dart: his weakness was the only time when I could taste the delight of paying wrong for wrong.' (Chapter 17)| I could doubt no more: he was dead and stark!

I hasped the window; I combed his black long hair from his forehead; I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation before any one else beheld it. They would not shut: they seemed to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white teeth sneered too! (Chapter 34)

• The horror genre actor Vincent Price delivered his characters' lines with a trademark sneer.
• Punk rock musician Billy Idol is also known for a trademark sneer.
• In the Harry Potter stories, Draco Malfoy and his father are notorious for their sinister sneers, which represent these characters' sense of entitlement over and contempt for those judged lacking in monetary, power, or family status.
• More than one commentator has depicted pop culture judicial panels such as those seen on American Idol and Britain's Got Talent as regularly sneering upon their hapless contestants.
• The cartoon character Cyril Sneer from the Canadian series The Raccoons has a sneer as his namesake.Animated TV specials: the complete directory to the first twenty-five years. Scarecrow Press, 1989.
• Former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney's political opponents have at times perceived him as looking upon them with a sneer.

References

References

1. (Apr 10, 1937). "The Power of the Sneer". The Age.
2. [[Charles Darwin]], ''[[The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals]]'', 1872, pp [http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F1142&viewtype=text&pageseq=1 249-250]
3. Darwin, above; p. 251
4. (March 1988). "On the form and universality of the contempt expression". Motivation and Emotion.
5. (March 1997). "Neuropsychological aspects of facial asymmetry during emotional expression". Neuropsychology Review.
6. Desmond Morris. (1987). "Cat watching". Crown Publishers.
7. 0-7864-1932-6. p.96
8. 0-618-87268-X. pp.2-3
9. 0-415-96484-9. p.51
10. 0-313-32067-5. p.184
11. 0-470-45969-7. p.245
12. 0-435-22730-0. p.78
13. [https://books.google.com/books?id=5xAEAAAAMBAJ&q=sneering&pg=RA1-PA43 ''Billboard'']. May 4, 2002. p.43
14. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7iQEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Cyril+Sneer%22&pg=RA1-PA49 ''Billboard'']. Jul 26, 1986. p.K-19
15. 1-56025-886-1. p.62
16. 0-7425-4193-2. p.2