Both Uses of
tempest
in
Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky
- Where is it I've read that someone condemned to death says or thinks, an hour before his death, that if he had to live on some high rock, on such a narrow ledge that he'd only room to stand, and the ocean, everlasting darkness, everlasting solitude, everlasting tempest around him, if he had to remain standing on a square yard of space all his life, a thousand years, eternity, it were better to live so than to die at once!†
Chpt 2.6
- They sat side by side, both mournful and dejected, as though they had been cast up by the tempest alone on some deserted shore.†
Chpt 5.4 *
Definition:
a violent commotion or disturbance -- especially a violent storm or emotional outburst
The expression tempest in a teapot describes people as being upset over an unimportant matter.