desperation

They allowed us to capture the complicated relationship between poverty and family bonds, between community pride and desperation.

This is it indeed which the devil desireth; he can allow you grief and desperation, but not to amend.

I felt that desperation and recklessness of poverty which only a pauper knows.

He realized with desperation that every word the other spoke was true, that he was helpless unless he could be convincing.

But that unvarying scrutiny was harder to bear, and at last, in desperation, she made a quivering appeal.

In extremes of desperation one clutches at the semblance of a straw.